As expected, all the top teams breezed into the quarterfinals of the Hockey India 13th Senior National men’s championship here.
With five teams already making it to the last eight on Thursday, it was left to the remaining three — Punjab (Pool D), Uttar Pradesh (G) and Odisha (H) to qualify. They all did it in style in their last group matches, with thumping wins on Friday.
Also see: Odisha thrashes Telangana
Early in the morning, strong favourite Punjab blanked Uttarakhand 13-0 with Harmanpreet Singh and Jugraj Singh scoring a hat-trick each. Later, UP dominated from start to finish as it completed an 8-1 victory over Rajasthan.
Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, centre, of Uttar Pradesh who scored a goal against Rajasthan during the 13th National Senior Hockey in Chennai on Friday, November 24, 2023. | Photo Credit: R. RAGU
In the last match of the day, Odisha routed Telangana 7-0. Though Odisha ran riot in the second, third and fourth quarters, it was Telangana that shone in the first as it withstood a barrage of attack from its opponent.
Also see: UP dominates Rajasthan
A special mention must be made of Telangana’s captain and goalkeeper Sai Kumar Gangavath, who made some wonderful saves throughout and especially in the first quarter.
The results: Pool D: Punjab 13 (Parvinder Singh 12, Jugraj Singh 14, 18, 39, Harsahib Singh 15, 54, Harmanpreet Singh 22, 23, 55, Dilpreet Singh 37, 48, Sukhjeet Singh 52, Kanwarjeet Singh 58) bt Uttarakhand 0.
Pool G: UP 8 (Sunil Yadav 5, Pawan Rajbhar 7, Lalit Upadhyay 11, Arjun Sahani 21, 49, Faraz Mohd. 22, Manish Yadav 23, Rajkumar Pal 33) bt Rajasthan 1 (Shoyan Akhatar); Le Puducherry 6 (P. Baskaran 7, R. Ranjith 15, 17, Veera Thamizhan 21, 56, 58) bt Kerala 0.
Also see: Punjab eases past Uttarakhand
Pool H: Odisha 7 (Dipsan Tirkey 24, Rajin Kandulna 25, 60, Amit Rohidas 31, Ajay Kumar Ekka 36, Sanjeep Nilam Xess 43, Rosan Minz 57) bt Telangana 0; Delhi 23 (Vashudev 2, 5, 8, 20, 41, 43, 55, 58, Amit 4, 12, Lovepreet Singh 12, 19, 45, 49, Rahul 13, Dheeraj Vats 21, 23, Rohit 25, 42, Rahul Garai 30, 31, Gursimran Singh 33, Thakur Yash 60) bt Arunachal 0.
Quarterfinal line-up: Haryana vs Odisha; TN vs UP; Karnataka vs Jharkhand; Punjab vs Manipur.
