Pune, Sep 8 (IANS): Defending champions Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) became the first team to qualify for the quarterfinals while runners-up Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) joined booking their berth in the 4th Hockey India Senior Men Inter-Department National Championship ‘24 at the Major Dhyanchand Stadium.

The day began with PSPB fighting off the fight put up by the Central Board Of Direct Taxes (CBDT) before winning 5-4. The victory was PSPB’s third-in-a-row which maintained their top spot in Pool A with nine points.

Yousuf Affan opened the account for PSPB before Rosan Minz added a brace and Sumit Kumar and Dipsan Tirkey added one each and completed their team’s tally.

For the Central Board Of Direct Taxes, Vikash Choudhary accounted for a brace while Pranam Gowda Y.M and Mareeswaran Sakthivel reduced the margin further.

In Pool B, the Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) downed the Steel Plant Sports Board for their third win. RSPB were aided by a double by Pardeep Singh and Gursahibjit Singh. RSPB took their tally to nine points from three matches.

In other matches, Pool A had the Indo-Tibetian Border Police (I.T.B.P) Central Hockey Team play out a 3-3 draw with Central Secretariat. Taranjot Singh, Vijay Kumar Gond, Anil netted for ITBP while Central Secretariat had Kawaljit Singh and a brace by M Hassan Basha to level terms.

ITBP thus opened their tally with one point (2 matches) and Central Secretariat added to their tally and tallied four points (3 matches) to occupy second position in Pool A.

Pool B had the All India Police Sports Control Board record the best score of the tournament so far. The police team beat Sports Authority of Gujarat – Hockey Academy 17-2. Akashdeep Singh netted eight goals to record the best individual score of the tournament with Olympian Dilpreet Singh scoring three while Haris Mohammad, Dharamvir Singh, Pawan Deep Singh, Simranjit Singh, Shubham and Kamaljit Singh all added to the tally.

Sports Authority Of Gujarat – Hockey Academy reduced the margin from becoming a rout when Ajaykumar Baria completed a brace.

The police team took their tally to six points (3 matches) to seal the second position in Pool B. Sports Authority of Gujarat lost their third match and were the first to exit.