Thaindian News

Bhopal, June 16 (IANS) Karnataka and Haryana romped into the semi-final of the senior national hockey championship, courtesy golden goals from drag flickers V.R. Raghunath and Sandeep Singh respectively here Thursday.

Raghunath’s golden goal took Karnataka past Air India 2-1 while Sandeep’s extra-time goal saw Haryana beat a resilient young Orissa side 3-2.

Both Sandeep and Raghunath converted two penalty corners each.

In the semifinals, Karnataka will face Punjab who crushed Bihar 9-0. Jharkhand, who stormed into the semifinal beating Railways 2-1, will take on Haryana.

For Jharkhand, Ajitesh Roy (17th) converted a penalty corner in the first half but Railways levelled through Sanjay Bir (32nd). Bikesh Toppo (60th) then scored the winner with a fantastic acrobatic reverse flick.

The Haryana-Orissa clash was an exciting fare. Sandeep converted Haryana’s fifth penalty corner while Gurmail Singh deflected a long pass from Sandeep to hand them a 2-0 lead.

Orissa came back in the final moments to draw level. Amit Rohit Das converted a penalty corner and then Orissa managed to sneak with another goal through Stanli Victor Minz in another short corner just before the final hooter.

Sandeep then broke the deadlock with a stinging flick in the extra minute.

The match between Air India and Karnataka was billed as a big clash but it fell short of expectations. If Karnataka were lacklustre, Air India too looked rusty.

Vikram Pillay converted a penalty stroke in the 31st minute to give Air India the lead in front of a sparse but enthusiastic crowd at the Aisbagh Stadium.

Karnataka, riding on Raghunath’s brilliance, levelled in the 61st minute. Raghunath scored from a penalty corner. He struck again in the extra time — in the 75th minute — to take his tally in the tournament to nine goals, all from penalty-corner conversions.

Karnataka goalkeeper Bharat Chetri also played an important part bringing off a series of good saves.

Apart from Chetri and Raghunath’s performance, Karnataka was largely unimpressive, especially in the first half where Air India had the lion’s share of ball possession.

Karnataka players could not get their basics like trapping right. Their poor work robbed Raghunath of scoring opportunities as they failed to trap properly from penalty corners. They had six in all.

Air India were unlucky as livewire forward Shivender Singh hurt his shoulder in the first half and had to be benched.

Karnataka’s best chance came in the second half when Deepak Thakur skilfully dribbled past a circle of defenders to put S.K. Uthappa in position but the latter hit the post.

Karnataka got a few more opportunities, but all were lost due to poor finishing before Raghunath came to the team’s rescue with the third penalty corner.

“We did not play well. There are lot of things we need to work on before the next match. In the second half we put up a better performance. Raghunath has been brilliant in the tournament,” Karnataka coach B.J. Kariappa told IANS.

Earlier in the first quarter-final in the morning, Punjab crushed Bihar 9-0 to move into the semifinal.

Prabhdeep Singh slammed three goals, Manpreet Singh two while Satbir Singh, Sarvanjit Singh, Ranjodh Singh and Harpreet Singh scored goals apiece.