Karnataka boosted their chances of qualifying for the knockout stage of the 36th Senior National handball championship by notching up two more victories here on Wednesday.
While Karnataka battled past Assam 35-28 in the morning, the hosts got a walkover against Orissa later in the evening on an ‘eventful’ day at the Sree Kanteerava stadium.
Lisho Augustin top scored with eight goals for the hosts while skipper Premnath continued his good run in the tournament by scoring seven.
Having won all the five matches that they have played in the tournament so far, Karnataka needs only a draw against Chattisgarh in their last group encounter on Thursday.
A struggle
Assam really struggled to breach the Karnataka defence and trailed 13-16 at the halfway mark.
R Singh did score a couple of goals towards the end but that was not enough for them to stay in the hunt. Meanwhile, defending champions Punjab and runners up Delhi continued to make steady progress. Delhi, who suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Kerala on Tuesday, made amends by posting victories over Rajasthan and Manipur.
Manipur could open their account only after Delhi had raced to a 4-0 lead. Vinod Mann was the star of the show for Delhi as he kept scoring with consummate ease.
O Inungyai Meitei’s was Manipur’s star, scoring a match-high10 goals, but he lacked support from fellow attackers.
Services score
In Group C, Services won all the three games played on the day with skipper I N C Singh -- captain of the Indian squad which participated in the World Military Games in Hyderabad, standing out with his striking prowess.
Results: Group A: Haryana: 32 (Ranbir 12) bt Chandigarh: 12 (Narender 5). HT: 12-5; Punjab: 26 (Kuljit 5) bt J & K: 24 (Sudhir 6). HT: 19-11; Railways: 42 (M Singh 16) bt Pondichery: 5 (G Raj 3). HT: 24-1; Haryana: 23 (Ranbir 7) bt Bihar: 6 (Ravinath 2); Punjab: 27 (Mohinder Singh 6) bt Railways: 23 (Kuljit Keepal 8); Punjab: 21 (Kuljit 8) bt Haryana: 20 (Ranbir 5). HT:11-8.
