Karnataka scrape into quarters

Skipper and junior international Cyprian Aind scored in the 28th minute to put Services ahead. The goal came off the side’s fourth penalty corner and Cyprian pushed home the rebound which was padded by Karnataka goalkeeper Bharath Chetri following a Mahadik hit.

The hosts neutralised the lead seven minutes after the resumption when Ajay Aiyappa found the mark after the ball rebounded off Services goalkeeper Palaksha’s pad. The goal was aresult of their third penalty corner.

Karnataka shot ahead five minutes later, with Biknu Munda giving finishing touches to Ajay Aiyappa’s hard work on the right flank. Biknu unleashed a cracking reverse hit which landed into the roofing of the Services goal.

Soon Aiyappa was replaced by Anup Anthony and the latter justified his substitution by improving the lead in the 56th minute.

But blame it on Karnataka for their sheer complacency to allow Services to level the score with Basu Horo netting two opportunistic goals in the space of four minutes.

In the day’s opening encounter, Air India could not have asked for a better start to their campaign. Even their reserve players including the goalkeeper had a feel of the pitch in their 13-1 win over Gujarat in Pool H. With Deepak Thakur and Anurag Raghuvanshi, who played for India in the just concluded European tour, joining the sides, Air India went all out. Deepak slammed in three goals (2nd, 30th & 52nd). Mohammed Fahad (12th, 46th, 53rd & 59th), VinayKumar (31st), Prabhjot Singh (23rd, 33rd & 57th), Sunil Yadav (49th) and Sanjeev K Singh (66th) were the other scorers. Vishal Pothiwala netted the lone goal for Gujarat in the 17th minute.

Other Results

Pool G: Bengal 17 (Cyril Ekka 4, Paulas Soy 3, Samarjit Singh 5, Bharat Kumar Baghwar 2, Manoj Kujur, Iqbal Singh, Gurghyan Singh) bt Vidarbha 0; Pool H: Bihar 9 (Vijay Topno 2, Biraj Tete 2, Flugence Barla 2, Alexeius Tirkey 2, Johnson Topno) bt Jammu & Kashmir 0.

Quarterfinal line-up: PSB vs Punjab; Karnataka vs Bombay.

League Standings (read under as played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points).

Pool A

Punjab 2-2-0-0-13-1-6

Pondicherry 2-1-0-1-6-3-3

Rajasthan 2-0-0-0-1-16-0

Pool B

Bhopal 3-2-0-1-8-6-6

Bombay 3-3-0-0-19-3-9

Hyderabad 3-0-1-2-3-15-1

Himachal 3-0-1-2-4-10-1

Pool C

PSB 3-2-1-0-19-2-7

Orissa 3-2-1-0-14-4-7

Chandigarh 3-1-0-2-8-7-3

MP 3-0-0-3-0-28-0

PoolD

Karnataka 4-3-1-0-30-5-10

Services 4-3-1-0-26-5-9

Nagaland 4-1-1-2-4-13-4

Kerala 4-1-1-2-3-13-4

Maharashtra 4-0-0-4-5-32-0