Holders Punjab in Senior Hockey Nationals semis

Defending champions Punjab thrashed Jharkhand 6-0 to advance to the semifinals of the 3rd Hockey India Senior Men National Championship here today.
Haryana, Karnataka and Air India also entered the last four stage with wins in their quarterfinal matches.
In the semifinals to be played tomorrow, last year's runners-up Air India take on Haryana while Punjab clash with Karnataka.
Punjab dominated the proceedings in their quarterfinal match played at Shiv Chhatrapati Shivaji Sports Complex and scored at regular intervals.
Deepak Thakur scored two goals while Sarvanjit Singh, Gurjinder Singh, Ravi Pal Singh and Inderjeet Singh found the target once.
Air India, on the other hand, scored a hard-fought 5-4 win over Railways at Major Dhyan Chand Polygrass Hockey Stadium at Pimpri.

Haryana defeated Chandigarh 4-1 after conceding an early goal. Chandigarh, who led 1-0 at half time, lost their rhythm in the second half which allowed their opponents 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.
In the last quarter-final match of the day, Karnataka scored twice in each half to overcome Manipur 4-2.