Air India, Railways enter national hockey quarterfinals

Pune - Air India and Railways entered the quarter-finals of the third Hockey India Senior Men’s National Championship by defeating Madhya Pradesh 10-1 and Namdhari XI 5-2 in their respective group matches here today.

Air India will now take on Railways in the quarterfinals on June 8.

Pune-based Vikram Pillay, Joga Singh and Affan Yusuf scored two goals each for Air India while Railways were involved in an ill-tempered game marked by arguments.

Railways played a solid game and defended well against the aggressive Namdhari XI whose players became increasingly frustrated, requiring umpires Javed Shaikh and Raghu Prasad to step in.

In a Group B match, Puducherry drew with Chhatisgarh 5-5 while in Group G Andhra Pradesh scored a 5-2 win over Kerala.

In Group D, Haryana inflicted a 6-1 defeat to Maharashtra while Andaman and Nicobar drew 3-3 with Mumbai.

A hat-trick by Osaf Ur-Rehman featured Bhopal’s 6-2 win over Jammu and Kashmir in a Group F game while Delhi received a walk-over from Arunachal in Group A.

The results:

Group G: Andhra Pradesh 5 beat Hockey Kerala 2.

Group B: Puducherry 5 dew with Chhatisgarh 5; Air India 10 beat Madhya Pradesh 1.

Group D: Haryana 6 beat Maharashtra 1; Andaman and Nicobar 3 drew with Mumbai 3.

Group F: Bhopal 6 beat Jammu and Kashmir 2; Railways 5 beat Namdhari XI 2.