Punjab, Delhi keep punching in national hockey

Punjab, Delhi, Karnataka and Manipur maintained their winning run in the league rounds of the third Hockey India senior men's National championship here Tuesday.

In Group A, Hockey Punjab scored their third consecutive win defeating Association of Indian Universities 8-4 with veteran Deepak Thakur scoring five goals while Vikramjit Singh (2) and Ravi Pal (1) completed the tally.

For the Universities, Ramandeep Singh (1), Razin Kandulana (2) and Hardeep Singh (1) were the scorers.

Delhi scored their second straight win in the same group thrashing Hockey Gujarat 11-1 as Mohit scored a hat-trick . Punjab will now take on Delhi in their last league match to decide the quarterfinalist from Group A.

Hockey Karnataka continued their strong showing in Group C by registering their second win in in as many matches as they defeated Sports Authority of India 5-2. An own goal helped Karnataka besides strikes by Nikkin Thimmaiah (2), SK Uthappa and Aiyappa MB.

In Group E, Hockey Himachal Pradesh drew with Bengal Hockey Association 1-1 while in Group G, Manipur Hockey overwhelemed Hockey Kerala 10-3 to maintain a clean slate with two wins.

AT Avinash's hat-trick for Kerala went in vain as TH Kiran (2), K Roshan (2), Amarjit (1), Ksh Victo (2), Ksh Wangamba (1), Ojit (1) scored at regular intervals for Manipur even as an own goal swelled the winners' tally.

In Group G, Andhra Pradesh scored a 5-3 win over Hockey Uttarakhand for their second consecutive win to tie with Manipur in the league standings.

The results (league):

Group A Hockey Punjab 8 (Deepak Thakur 3,28,31,60,63min; Vikramjit Singh 24,49min; Ravi Pal 33min) bt Association of Indian Universities 4 (Ramandeep Singh 16min, Razin Kandulana 37,45min, Hardeep Singh 66min); Hockey Delhi 11 (Own Goal 3min, Mohit 5,14,16min; Parveen Kumar 20min; Parshant 26min; Kabir Sharma 27min; Kuldeep 28min: Pradeep Kumar 45min; Anil Kumar 55min; Rajbir Yadav 58min) beat Hockey Gujarat 1(Rohit Thakur 35min).

Group C: Hockey Karnataka: 5 (Nikkin Thimmaiah 13,43min, Own Goal 28min, Uthappa SK 42min; Aiyappa MB.70min) beat Sports Authority of India 2 (Pal Raju 37min; Sunil Yadav 51min).

Group E: Hockey Himachal Pradesh 1 (Gourav Kumar 43min) drew with Bengal Hockey Association 1 (MD Riyazuddin).

Group G: Manipur Hockey 10 (TH Kiran 11,47min; K Roshan 15, 62min; Own goal 16min; Amarjit 22min; Ksh Victo 38,41min; Ksh Wangamba 42min; TH Ojit 62min) beat Hockey Kerala: 3 (Avinash AT 29,50,64min); Hockey Andhra Pradesh 5 (Ramesh Samineni 12,16min; Arvind 46,70min; Sampathkumar Myalram 50min) beat Hockey Uttarakhand 3 (Own Goal 45min; Kailash Singh 51min; Arvind Singh 53min).