It was a captains’ day out in the quarterfinals of the Hockey India 13th Senior National men’s championship here on Saturday as Joshua Benedict Wesley and Harmanpreet Singh led their teams to victory and book a place in the last four.
Joshua’s brace enabled Tamil Nadu edge out Uttar Pradesh 3-2 while Harmanpreet’s powerful penalty corner strikes helped favourite Punjab put it across Manipur 4-2.
In another pulsating last eight contest, defending champion Haryana beat Odisha 3-2 through sudden death after the teams were tied 2-2 at regulation time and 2-2 in the shoot-out. In the lone one-sided tie, Karnataka dispatched Jharkhand 4-1. In the semifinals on Monday, TN will clash with Haryana while Punjab will meet Karnataka.
