Punjab became the first team to enter the quarterfinals of the Hockey India Senior Men's National Championship after beating Andhra Pradesh here on Monday.
Punjab scored a 7-1 win over Andhra Pradesh to remain unbeaten in Pool D, which has been reduced to three teams after Andaman and Nicobar failed to turn up for the championship.
With six points in their kitty, Punjab qualified for the knock-out stage, while Andhra Pradesh bowed out of the tournament.
Punjab began their match with Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Rupinder Pal Singh (2nd minute) converting his team's second penalty corner.
Thereafter, Punjab displayed a collective show with Lovepreet Jainth (5th), Ranjot Singh (19th) and Sudarshan Singh (29th) sounding the board. Andhra Pradesh surprised Punjab when Venkata Sree Arjipineni Balaji scored in the 26th minute.
Changing ends, Punjab's Parampreet Singh (40th), Sankalp Singh (42nd) and Sudarshan completed the tally.
Karnataka and Chandigarh remained unbeaten, and on course for quarterfinal berths after registering their second win. Karnataka downed Puducherry 4-1 in Pool C, and Chandigarh beat Manipur 1-0 in Pool E.
Chandigarh found their hero in Amandeep (42nd) en route a 1-0 win over Manipur, while Harish Mutagar (5th), S Deekshith (25th), Shamanth (40th) and Pavan Madivalar (49th) scored for Karnataka in their win over Puducherry.
Manipur, coming off the back of a massive win over Tripura in their first match, fell to a deft deflection by Chandigarh's Amandeep in the third quarter which turned out to be the decisive goal.
Chandigarh remained unbeaten and now have six points to their name. Manipur and Rajasthan have three points each in the group.
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