HYDERABAD, MARCH 17: Unfancied Central Excise took an early lead, then packed their defence to record a solitary goal win against Karnataka in a pool G encounter of the PSB-SBI 59th Senior National hockey championship at the Begumpet Police Stadium on Wednesday.The win consolidated the position of the Excisemen, who had pipped Tatas on Tuesday. Karnataka, who had themselves to blame for the defeat, will now have to keep their fingers crossed and rely on luck to earn the lone quarter-final berth from this pool.The day began with Air-India, playing without one of their main strikers, Gagan Ajit Singh (injured), steamrolling Pondicherry 21-0, while Services and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the contenders for the last eight slot in pool H, followed suit with big wins in their respective matches. Services routed Assam 19-0, while CRPF drubbed Kerala 10-0. In another game, Chandigarh crushed Delhi 9-2.That Karnataka forced and wasted 13 penalty corners as against three by their rivals reflectedtheir dominance. In fact, apart from the three penalty corners, there was only one noteworthy attack through out the match from Excise.Karnataka forwards played with fervour and flair, but failed to convert their chances, including the 13 penalty corners where their drill lacked conviction.Excise began sedately, aware of their rivals' superiority (at least on paper). They packed their defence and midfield, leaving only one player upfront. It was on one of the rare occasions when forward Suresh managed to break free of his marker that Excise found the route to the goal in the eighth minute.A defensive lapse by Rama Rao resulted in a penalty corner, Rajinder promptly seized the chance to sound the boards.The Excise players immediately backtracked. Helping the Excise campaign was their goalkeeper BC Poonacha who stood like a rock, and medio Charles D'Souza who perhaps gave the best performance of his career, with timely interceptions and sensible tackles.CRPF, Services win: Another team tostruggle with their penalty corners were CRPF who could not convert any of the 16 penalty corners they earned, yet registered a 10-0 win against Kerala.Services used the match to experiment with their attacks. Young schemer Paramjit Singh, playing at centre-half with guile and gusto, helped forwards Jeromius Kujur and Cyprian Aind on the left flank and the Horos - Kamal and Basu - on the right to try out different variations to score.Big win for A-I: Air-India found a hero in newcomer Inder Salaria. Salaria pumped in five goals including a four-in-a-row effort as A-I struck at will.ResultsPool G: Central Excise 1 (Rajinder) bt Karnataka 0; Chandigarh 9 (Navdeep Singh 5, Balbir Singh, Surjeet Singh, Baldev Singh, Gurpreet Singh) bt Delhi 2 (Mahesh Dayal, Sonu). Pool I: Air-India 21 (Deepak Thakur 5 (including a HT), Rajesh Chauhan 4, Edward Aranha 3, Kishore Kumar 3, Inder Salaria 3, Davinder Kumar, Cornelius D'Costa, Anil Aldrin) bt Pondicherry 0.Pool H: CRPF 10(Jolen Topno 4, Toper Kujur 4, Tanveer Jamal, Vincen Hemron) bt Kerala 0; Services 19 (Cyrpian Aind 6, Basu Horo 4, Paramjit Singh 2, Ranjit Bhengra 2, Rajpal Singh 2, Pradeep, Kamal Horo, Jeromius Kujur) bt Assam 0.Thursday's matches: Bengal vs Kerala (H); Air-India vs Madhya Pradesh (I); Universities vs PSB (I); Bhopal vs Manipur (J).
