With rain rendering the field slushy at the outdoor stadium, the organisers were forced to move the inaugural tie to indoors.

The motley crowd, that had to wait for almost two hours to see some action after a delayed opening ceremony, finally had their fill with the hosts trouncing Himachal Pradesh  without much ado.

Skipper Premnath and goalkeeper Shinoj were the architects of Karnataka’s victory. While Premnath, who represents KSP, excelled in shooting, Sappers’ Shinoj did well in the goal, pulling off some stunning saves.

Himachal, who were fourth in last year’s edition in Bilaspur, went ahead in the very first minute through Hardeep who scored off a rebound. But thereafter, they never looked like challenging the hosts. A couple of wrong passes didn’t help their cause either.

On the other hand, Karnataka looked solid with most of their attacks fetching them points. Lisho Augustin, who emerged the top scorer with seven goals, led the Karnataka’s charge while Melbi Mathew put behind the disappointment of receiving the first yellow card of the tournament with a couple of good strikes.

Weary lot
The hosts led 19-6 at the halfway mark and the change of ends didn’t change the fortunes of the Himachal outfit which looked a weary lot after the break. Srinivasan replaced Shinoj under the Karnataka bar and he proved more than a handy replacement, while Himachal’s challenege fizzled out. Punjab were to play the opening match, but the organisers effected a last-minute change, putting the hosts’ match first.

Punjab, the defending champions, eventually took the court for the second match and easily moved past Goa 34-14.

Sanjay led the Punjab assault, scoring nine goals while Karamjeet and Kuljit contributed six goals apiece.
For Goa, Hayson top-scored with five goals.

In a Group B match, Gujarat defeated Delhi 31-21 after leading 19-15 at half-time. Praveen Kumar Singh top-scored for Gujarat with 12 points.

Results:
Group A: Punjab: 34 (Sanjay 9, Karamjeet 6, Kuljit 6) bt Goa: 14 (Hayson 5). HT: 17-9.

Group B: Gujarat 31 (Praveen Kumar Singh 12, Satyan 8, Shivanarayan 8) bt Delhi 21 (Ramesh Chand 9, Avtar Singh 4). HT: 19-15.

Group D: Karnataka: 32 (Lisho Augustin 7, Premnath 6, Saravana Kumar 6, Henry Singh 3) bt Himachal Pradesh: 10 (Rama 2, Hardeep 2). HT: 19-6.