Bangalore, May 16: In an attempt to contain the marauding Tamil Nadu forwards after letting in eight goals in the first half, Jammu and Kashmir crowded the defence in the second. Yet, when the nightmare was finally over, the scoreline read 11-0 in favour of the southern state. It was Tamil Nadu's second victory in the Punjab and Sind Bank 58th Senior National Hockey Championship at the Sports Authority of India complex today.

In the other Group E match, Maharashtra defeated Madhya Bharat by a lone second-half goal while, Delhi thwarted a late resurgence from Gujarat and hung on to its narrow lead for a 3-2 victory in a rough Group G encounter which saw three yellow cards.

Tamil Nadu, the South Zone champions who dethroned Karnataka in Hyderabad, began with a bang scoring in the very second minute. Their forwards M Jagan Senthil and Lakshman Prabhakaran moved in tandem with Kevin, who opened the account.

Tamil Nadu mounted pressure and raided the rival citadel repeatedly with Olympian Mohammed Riaz being the fulcrum, but for almost 15 minutes, they could not increase the tally despite being in the driver's seat. They failed to beat the defence manned by S Topno and Manjesh Singh.

However, a penalty corner in the 19th minute changed the whole scenario.

Senthil's push was set up perfectly by Prabhakaran and Riaz sounded the board. Three minutes later, V Paul Kirubakaran led the goal-rush making it 3-0 and the floodgates were opened with Tamil Nadu pumping six goals in the space of nine minutes. At half-time, TN led 8-0.

Determined to stop the goal-hungry TN forwards, J&K crowded the defence in the second session and managed to contain them for 17 minutes before S Thirumalvalavan converted a stroke. Later, TN scored two more goals.The scorers in the 11-0 victory, were Kevin, L Prabhakaran and V Paul Kirubhakaran (two each), Md Riyaz, M Jagan Senthil, L Senthil Kumar, S Thirumalvalavan and D Felix (one each).

In a Group E match, Vijay Benedict, fed by Harish Sapkal, scored for Maharashtra in the 49th minute after a barren first half. This is the second defeat for Madhya Bharat, whose chances of qualifying for the knockout phase look bleak.

Delhi's victory over Gujarat left Group G wide open. The scrappy encounter saw frayed tempers and the players almost traded blows and pushed the umpire. Delhi opened the account four minutes after the breather through Mahesh Dayal and in the 46th minute, Gurmeet Singh converted a stroke before Praveen Singh made it 3-0 through a field goal.

But Gujarat raised the level of their game scoring twice in the space of two minutes through Sanjay Borde and Lakanpal, who utilised a defensive lapse. However, time ran out even as they tried hard for the equaliser. In the four-team group Delhi, Andhra and Gujarat have three points each with one victory, while Patiala have yet to open the account having lost to Gujarat in their opening encounter.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.