New Delhi, 8 May 2013: Air India, Haryana, Punjab and Karnataka entered the semi-finals of the 3^rd Hockey India Senior Men National Championship 2013.

In the semi-finals to be played on Sunday 9 June 2013, last year’s runners-up Air India take on Haryana while Defending Champion Punjab will clash with Karnataka.

Last year’s runners-up Air India scored a hard-fought 5-4 win against Railways to win the first quarter-final match played at Major Dhyan Chand Polygrass Hockey Stadium, Pimpri in Pune today. Air India who led 4-1 at the half time looked quite confident but their opponents Railways tried to make a comeback scoring three consecutive goals in the second half.

In the second quarter-final, Haryana defeated Chandigarh 4-1 after conceding an early goal. Chandigarh who led 1-0 at the half time, lost its rhythm and flow in the second half which allowed their opposition to score four goals. Mandeep Antil, Shivdeep, Jagwant and Hansraj scored a goal each for Haryana. Chandigarh were unable to build on the early break as they committed far too many errors in their defence to allow Haryana to gain the upper hand.

Defending champion Punjab muscled past Jharkhand 6-0 in the third quarter-final played at Shiv Chhatrapati Shivaji Sports Complex today.

Punjab dominated the proceedings and scored at regular intervals. Deepak Thakur scored two goals for Punjab followed by Sarvanjit Singh, Gurjinder Singh, Ravi Pal Singh and Inderjeet Singh a goal each.

In the last quarter-final, Karnataka scored twice in each half to overcome Manipur 4-2.

Quarter-final 1: Air India 5 (Pradhan Somanna 6, 60, Swamy Vinaya 21, Joga Singh 32, Arjun Halappa 35) beat Railways 4 (Gagandeep Singh 27, B Horo 37, Sanjay Bir 41, Jasjeet Singh 43)

Quarter-final 2: Haryana 4 (Mandeep Antil 35, Shivdeep 37, Jagwant 47, Hansraj 48) beat Chandigarh 1 (Lakhwinder Singh 12)

Quarter-final 3: Punjab 6 (Sarvanjit Singh 19, Gurjinder Singh 26, Ravi Pal Singh 31, Inderjeet Singh 32, Deepak Thakur 58, 63) beat Jharkhand 0

Quarter-final 4: Karnataka 4 (B S Bidappa 13, Nikkin Thimmaiah 30, M B Aiyappa 41, M G Poonacha 48) beat Manipur 2 (K Suresh 37, N Gandndrajit 65)

Fixture for Sunday 9 June 2013

Semi-final 1- Air India vs Haryana (1300hrs)

Semi-final 2- Punjab vs Karnataka (1530hrs)