Bangalore, June 26: Helped by a rival defence that fell like nine pins, last edition's runners-up Air India kept their flight into the quarterfinals of the Tatas 30th National Junior Hockey championships snag free with a 14-0 demolition of Bihar at the Akkithimmanahalli Stadium on Saturday. A-I's win took them to the top of Pool H, setting up a last eight clash with Uttar Pradesh, who earlier earned the qualifiers' slot from pool F with a 4-1 triumph against Andhra.Bengal completed the quarterfinal line-up completing their Pool G engagements beating Haryana 4-0.International Deepak Thakur began the rout for A-Iin the third minute with a reverse hit following Sunil Yadav's through pass. Prabhjot Singh came up with a match tally of six goals and Deepak added to his opener three times. Mohammed Fahad (2), Roshan Tete and Sanjeev Singh (one each) all helped themselves to the scorers' list.
Uttar Pradesh made the last eight grade with a 4-1 win against Andhra. Mohammed Kaleem, Aftab Ahmed, Gagan Srivastavaand Hamza Mujtaba scored for UP as Phani Kumar converted a penalty stroke to pull one back for Andhra.Bengal began well with an attractive variation during the fifth penalty corner through Paulus Soy, who nudged home the back-to-the-pusher drill off Samarjit Singh. Skipper Iqbal Singh's efforts could not fructify into a goal till 10 minutes after the interval.Cyril Ekka increased the lead. Samarjit capped a passing bout with Paulus before Manoj Kujur complete the rout.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.