National Hockey: Punjab, Manipur make last 8

Punjab overwhelmed Delhi 9-2, while Manipur ousted Andhra Pradesh 4-2 in their league matches to enter the quarter-finals from their respective groups in the third Hockey India senior men's National championship here Thursday.

In a crucial Group A match, former international Deepak Thakur slammed five goals while Vikramjit Singh converted three penalty corners to star in Punjab's fourth win.

Jharkhand scraped past Odisha 3-2 to top the Group E, but they still have a match in hand against Himachal Pradesh, who went down 1-2 to Comptroller and Auditor General.

In Group C, Karnataka scored an 8-1 win over Bihar. Playing an attacking game, Karnataka scored through S.K. Chengappa (2), Nikkin Thimmaiah, Uthappa S.K., Muddappa M.K., Vickram Kanth, Bidappa B.S. and Poonacha M.G.

Karnataka will take on Services Sports Control Board in a crucial match Friday to decide the quarter-finalist from the group.

In a crucial Group G match, Manipur overcame Andhra Pradesh 4-2 to end their league campaign by winning all their three matches.

The results (league):

Group A: Hockey Punjab 9 (Deepak Thakur 7,42,60,61,65min; Vikramjit Singh 24(PC),27(PC),64(PC)min; Davinder Pal Singh 35(PC)min) beat Hockey Delhi 2 (Pawan Singh Chauhan 2min; Nitin Kumar Sharma 4(PC)min).

Group C: Hockey Karnataka 8 (Uthappa SK. 11min; Nikkin Thimmaiah 22(PC)min; Chingappa S.K.29(PC),31(PC)min; Muddappa M.K. 39min; Vickram Kant 43min; Bidappa BS 51(PC)min; Poonacha MG 52min) beat Hockey Bihar 1 (Satnam Singh 56min).

Group E: Comptroller and Auditor General 2 (Imran Khan 18(PC)min; SS Bundela 43(PC)min) beat Hockey Himachal Pradesh 1 (Amit Lohchab 46min). Hockey Jharkhand 3 (Shashi Topno 31min; Welson Minz 40min; Diwakar Ram 58 (PC)min) beat Hockey Odisha 2 (Aman Miras Tirkey 20min; Deepak Kullu 45 (PC)min).

Group G: Hockey Uttrakhand 5 (Arvind Singh Bisht 4min; Prakash Mehra 14min, Deepak Rawat 25min, Pankaj Asawal 37,48min) beat Hockey Kerala 3 (PC Deepak 50min; VV Bhavanth 66 (PC)min; JV George 69min). Hockey Manipur 4 ( Kh Jeyanta Methai 27, 38min; N Ganendrajit 32, 64min) beat Hockey Andhra Pradesh 2 (Sandeep Raju 40min; Ramesh Krishna 64min).