TN, Karnataka seal quarterfinal berths in Junior National Hockey

MUMBAI: Tamil Nadu and Karnataka advanced to the knock-out stage of the Junior National Hockey Championship for Under-17 Boys after winning their matches in contrasting fashion.

While Karnataka thrashed Tripura 9-0, Tamil Nadu managed to outplay Pune DHA 3-1 after being down by a goal for the first 25 minutes of the match.

Tamil Nadu earned nine points to top the group F, while Karnataka topped group G by virtue of their second win in as many matches.

Earlier, Tamil Nadu were rattled by a 5th minute penalty corner strike by Anand Gaikwad and had to struggle for a long time.

But PDHA missed a few chances, which proved to be costly. And then PDHA conceded the equaliser in the 25th minute when Tamil Nadu forward D Surandar, a consistent performer for team, found the net.

It took Tamil Nadu another 35 minutes to surge ahead and yet again it was Surandar who came to the fore.

With V Madan Kumar striking again after three minutes, Tamil Nadu sealed a quarterfinal berth.

For Karnataka, Tripura were easy meat as they struck three goals within the first six minutes through Basavaraj, Pratik and Somanna.

Somanna added another goal through a penalty corner in the 22nd minute to give Karnataka a substantial lead at half time.

After the break, Basavaraj struck twice, while Bopanna, Pratik and Ganapathy added one each to the tally.

Meanwhile, Dadra and Nagar Haveli completed the formality in group F by beating Bihar 8-1.

Swapnil Shinde, Pruthvi Prashant, Pardesh S Sunil, Saurabh Bhayadekar scored a goal each for Dadra, while Alok Kumar scored the lone goal for Bihar, which was an equaliser in the 12th minute of play.

The match between Vidarbha and Gujarat had to be stopped midway due to heavy rains with the former leading 5-0.

Since Gujarat are leaving tonight, there is no possibility of the remaining match to be played tomorrow, which is a rest day.

Results:

Tamil Nadu (D Surandar 2, V Madan Kumar) beat Pune DHA (Anand Gaikwad).

Karnataka ( Basavaraj S A 3, Pratik T V 2, Somanna P A 2, Bopanna M S, Ganapathy M B) beat Tripura .

Dadra & Nagar Haveli (Swapnil Shinde 2, Pruthvi P Prashant 2, Pardesh Sagar Sunil 2, Saurabh K Bhayadekar, 2) beat Bihar (Alok Kumar).

Vidarbha (Manprit Singh Chahal 2, Waseem Khan Durrani, Chetan S Gaikwad, Rajkumar Jha) beat Gujarat .