Services,Tamilnadu,Chandigarh win in National Hockey

Jalandhar, Oct 25 (UNI) Former champions Services, Chandigarh, Patiala and Tamilnadu won their respective league matches to book their place in the knockout stage of the Dainik Bhaskar-Tracer 62nd Senior National Hockey Championship being played at four centers in Punjab.

While Services prevailed over Bengal 5-3 in a Pool-H match, Chandigarh continued with their good run in the tournament to thrash Orissa 5-1 in Pool-D. Despite losing, Orissa alongwith Chandigarh advanced into the knockout stage.

Patiala too went through to the knockout round thrashing Andaman and Nicobar 15-0 in Pool-B, while Tamilnadu beat Haryana 2-1 in a Pool-F match. Both Tamilnadu and Haryana are already through to the knockout stage.

Andhra Pradesh however crashed out of the tournament when they lost 5-6 to Pondicherry in Pool-B.

In the matches played at the PAU campus in Ludhiana, Services overcame a fighting Bengal 5-3 after leading 3-0 at half time.For the winners Suresh Kumar scored three goals.

Services took the lead in the 3rd minute of play with Ajay Kumar scoring a field goal. Suresh then scored two goals in the 6th and 43th minute to make it 3-0. Anil Ekka then reduced the margin (3-2) scoring two goals in the 37th and 38th minute.

Suresh then scored his third goal in the 40th minute to make it 4-1 and further consolidated their lead when Elaizer Akhhra scoring a field goal. The losers got their third goal in the 53rd minute through a penalty corner hit by Bhengra.

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