Air India, Tamil Nadu in last eight

Shreedutta Chidananda

Air India and Tamil Nadu entered the quarterfinals of the second Hockey India Senior National championships with resounding victories here on Tuesday. The airmen advanced from Pool E with an all-win record after caning Nagaland 16-0 at the KSHA Stadium.

The battle to progress out of Pool G was always going to be between Tamil Nadu and Odisha, and when the sides drew against each other on Sunday, it left their fate hanging on goal difference. On Tuesday, Tamil Nadu pummelled Kerala 16-1 at the MEG grounds to finish with a goal difference of 39, eventually two better than Odisha.

Karnataka, meanwhile, got off to a steady start in the tournament, brushing aside Himachal Pradesh 5-0 at the KSHA Stadium. The host went ahead in the fourth minute, S.K. Uthappa drilling in from Pundalik Bellary’s pass. Himachal Pradesh, though, proved tough to break down thereafter.

Karnataka attacked down the wings, through outside forwards Nikin Thimmaiah (who was untiring) and M.K. Mudappa, but failed to find a way in. Three penalty corners were wasted. However, a fourth came on the brink of half-time when Nitin Thimmaiah slotted in the rebound from V.R. Raghunath’s saved drag-flick.

The captain himself would get on the score sheet five minutes after the interval, firing a penalty corner high into the net. Karnataka scored two more through Mohan Muthanna and M.B. Aiyappa to cap off what was a satisfactory, if not dazzling, display.

The results: Pool A: Maharashtra 3 (Narad Bahadur 22, 65, Vijay Thapa 50) bt Bengal 1 (Adesh Balmiki 62); Haryana 3 (Harpreet Singh 21, Karamjit Singh 27, Naveen Antil 50) bt Puducherry 1 (Kamala Kannan 23).

Pool B: Karnataka 5 (S.K. Uthappa 4, Nitin Thimmaiah 34, V.R. Raghunath 40, Mohan Muthanna 56, M.B. Aiyappa 62) bt Himachal Pradesh 0; Andhra Pradesh 5 (Ajay Babu 24, Krishna Kishore 45, 70, Ramesh Krishna 50, 68) bt Delhi 2 (Pawan Singh Chauhan 23, Avtar Singh Mann 61).

Pool E: Madhya Pradesh 11 (Arman Qureshi 14, 52, 65, Amit Kumar Singh 20, Vikas Choudhary 21, 26, 46, 56, Shakir Hussain 50, Irshad Iqbal 59, Md. Nizamuddin 24) bt Rajasthan 0; Air India 16 (Naveen Sangwan 3, 10, 13, Vikas Pillay 7, Pradhan Somanna 9, 62, 68, Sandeep Singh 15, 22, Birendra Lakra 28, 41, Vikram Pillay 36, 37, 57, 69, Vinod Pillay 65) bt Nagaland 0.

Pool C: Services 16 (Sanwar Ali 10, 38, Arumugam 8, 20, 37, 54, Sairaj Alira 12, 32, 62, 64, Lovepreet Singh 26, 51, S.V. Sunil 27, 53, Sukhdev Singh 48, Pradhan Muthanna 66) bt Chhattisgarh 0.

Pool D: Uttarakhand 3 (Manoj Singh Rawat 12, 32, Kailash Singh Jalal 39) bt Goa 0; Chandigarh 5 (Lakwinder Singh 19, Lovedeep 33, Shahnawaz Alam 41, Raminder Singh 52, Harmanpreet Singh 55) bt SSB 1 (Joychandra Singh 56).

Pool G: Tamil Nadu 16 (Ashok Kumar 11, Rupinderpal Singh 21, 30, 42, 46, 62, V. Raja 25, Vinod Rayer 29, 55, 65, Gunasekar 33, 67, Sivamani 45, Manoj 51, Damu 58, 63) bt Kerala 1 (E. Sarin 57); Odisha 20 (Amit Rohit Das 1, 9, 30, 42, 48, 57, Sunil Toppo 5, 49, 50, 69, Bipin Kerketta 6, 29, Dilip Toppo 15, 32, 40, Ignacius Toppo 24, 29, 68, Mikhal Barla 64, Amon Mirash Tirkey 66) bt Gujarat 0.