HYDERABAD, MARCH 16: It was target practice for the fancied teams on Wednesday in the PSB-SBI 59th Senior National Hockey Championship at the Begumpet Police Stadium.Karnataka and Madhya Bharat in pool G, Services in pool I and Postal in pool B helped themselves to big wins in their quest for quarter-final berths, while Central Excise put it across debutants Tata Sport by the odd goal in three in a drab pool G encounter.Karnataka overcame a sluggish start to beat Chandigarh 7-3, while Madhya Bharat outplayed Delhi 5-2, Services slammed 10 without reply against minnows Kerala, and, in an inconsequential match in pool B, hosts Hyderabad completed their league engagements beating Gujarat 2-1.Tipped to top the pool, Karnataka began well taking an early lead through a Rama Rao penalty corner conversion, but were in for a rude shock as Chandigarh, thanks to goals by the hard working duo of Jaswinder Singh and Navdeep Singh not only equalised, but also shot ahead midway through the first session.It tooka penalty-stroke conversion by Shanmugam followed by the induction of the sensible Lakshman Rao (in place of John Verghese) for Karnataka to get into rhythm.Lakshman played the pivotal link between Samson Fernandez and Kavin, and the forward-line began to show better understanding. The stroke awarded by umpire Blaise Monteiro penalising the Chandigarh goalkeeper for squatting on the ball helped Karnataka restore parity. And Arjun Halappa scored off the third penalty corner to obtain the lead Karnataka were striving for. Karnataka led 3-2 at half-time.After the break, Karnataka got their act together. Samson Fernandez scored twice, and Prakash Chalke and Bimal Lakra one apiece. The lone goal conceded in the second session by Karnataka - a short-corner conversion by Baldev Singh - was only an aberration.Services had no trouble. Skipper Kamal Horo worked out some attractive attacks with Cyprian Aind and Jeromius Kujur and the side romped home leaving their rivals clueless.Kuldeep Singh and NirmalSingh were the heroes in the Postal win as the side recorded their fourth success in as many matches. Postal, on 12 points, now take on UP (10) on the morrow in the `final' match of the pool.In the Central Excise-Tatas match, the former forced the first penalty corner after 15 minutes and skipper Rahul Singh converted for the lead. Manoj Lokhande found the equaliser for Tatas with an opportunistic goal as the sides crossed over on level terms.With about 10 minutes left in the match, Adolf, from a quick counter-attack scored the match-winner for Excise.Former junior India captain Hasrat Quereshi scored three times in Madhya Bharat's win. Nafihi Raza scored the other two.The Results:Pool B: Postal 7 (Kuldeep Singh 4th & 68th, Nirmal Singh 6th & 11th, Aftabuddin 15th, Siraj-ul-Huq 18th, DP Singh 61st) bt Nagaland 1 (Manpreet Singh 66th).Hyderabad 2 (Sukhdev 32nd, Ilyas Ahmed 35th) bt Gujarat 1 (Lakhan Lal 25th).Pool G: Karnataka 7 (Samson Fernandez 39th & 62nd, Rama Rao 5th,Shanmugam 27th, Arjun Halappa 28th, Bimal Lakra 40th, Prakash Chalke 50th) bt Chandigarh 3 (Navdeep Singh 10th, Jaswinder Singh 17th, Baldev Singh 47th). Central Excise 2 (Rahul Singh 15th, Adolf 59th) bt Tatas 1 (Manoj Lokhande 27th). Madhya Bharat 5 (Hasrat Quereshi 12th, 20th & 68th, Nafihi Raza 9th & 50th) bt Delhi 2 (Sonu 43rd, Ajay Kumar 57th).Pool I: Services 10 (Cyprian Aind 16th, 30th, 47th & 63rd, Kamal Horo 9th & 34th, Jeromius Kujur 52nd & 64th, Pradeep 7th, Basu Horo 11th).Wednesday's Matches: Air India Vs. Pondicherry (I); CRPF Vs. Kerala (H); Services Vs. Assam (H); Delhi Vs. Chandigarh (G); Karnataka Vs. Central Excise (G); UP Vs.Postal (B); Tatas Vs. Madhya Bharat (G).
