IOC, Namdhari XI sail through with big wins

Chennai, June 20 (UNI) Indian Oil Corporation and Namdhari XI scored big wins as the race for the top honours in the league heats up in the junior national hockey champsionship here today.

While IOC blanked Andhra Pradesh 5-0 for their second win in Group G, Namdhari were even more emphatic in their 9-0 rout of Kerala for their second win in Group E.

In other matches, Delhi and Air India shared the honours in a scrappy goalless draw in Group E while, Uttar Pradesh came back from a two goal deficit before holding Chandigarh for a 3-3 draw in Group G.

Uttar Pradesh went ahead in the tenth minute with a penalty corner conversion by Vivek Dhoni, before Ranjoth Singh struck twice in 13 minutes to help Chandigarh gain a 2-1 lead at half time.

Preetinder Singh's penalty corner conversion in the 41st minute enhanced the lead for Chandigarh, before Uttar Pradesh came back strongly through Vivek Dhoni's goal in the 44th minute and Pramod Kumar scoring the equaliser three minutes before the hooter.

In the morning matches, Bihar defeated Vidarbha 8-3, Mizoram humbled Hyderabad 5-1, Madhya Bharat thrashed Gujarat 5-2 and Madhya Pradesh edged past Maharashtra 1-0.

Results: IOC bt Andhra Pradesh: 5-0 (Sashi Topno-1, Diwakar-2, Ranjoth Singh-1, Kulbushan-1).

Namdhari-9 (Mandeep Antil-3, Gurwinder Singh-4, Malak Singh-1, Baljinder Singh-1) bt Kerala-0.

Delhi drew with Air India 0-0.

Chandigarh-3 (Ranjoth Singh-2, Preetinder Singh-1) bt Uttar Pradesh-3 (Vivek Dhoni-2, Pramod Kumar-1).

UNI