Bangalore, May 22ŽOlympians Dilip Tirkey of Indian Airlines and Sabu Varkey of Bombay joined the distinguished list of players scoring a hattrick in the Punjab and Sind Bank 58th Senior National Hockey Championship at the Sports Authority of India South Centre here on Thursday.

While Tirkey's four-goal effort enabled holders Indian Airlines to swamp Kerala 10-0 in a Pool A tie, Varkey's scoring binge helped runners-up Bombay make mincemeat of the opposition from Manipur by an identical margin in Pool H.

Later, Madhya Pradesh defeated Pondicherry 4-0. As both teams had lost their opening encounters, the result will have no affect on the Group B leaders, where Air-India and Punjab are expected to fight it out for the top spot to gain a quarterfinal berth.

The lop-sided matches continued thanks to the unimaginative draw. The quarterfinals are scheduled to begin from May 27 after a rest day on Monday.

International Ravi Nayakar drew first blood for Bombay through an 18th minute field goal and pumped one more two minutes later when he converted a penalty corner. Thereafter, Raju Bagade struck twice before the teams took the break with Bombay leading 4-0.

Soon after resumption, Bombay earned a penalty corner and skipper Dhanraj Pillay sounded the boards. Later, Varkey got the first of his four goals in the 46th minute before Amjad Khan converted a penalty stroke. The match ended with a hattrick for Varkey with goals coming in the 54th, 56th and 58th minutes.

The proceedings in the next match too were similar with defending champions Indian Airlines toying with Kerala. Airlines never took the match seriously and goalkeeper Ashish Ballal was heard exhorting his teammates. However, it did not make much difference as Kerala could hardly gain possession of the ball. Though Kerala managed to force two penalty corners which went abegging, Airlines' custodian Ashish Ballal was hardly tested.

Airlines began in a jiffy forcing two penalty corners early in the match but Dilip Tirkey failed to convert any. However, he made up for the lapse, converting with power and precision rest of the four short corners his team received. The effort earned him a hattrick too. The other scorers in the first session were Sameer Dad and Virender Singh.

After crossover, skipper Atif Idris and Shakeel Ahmed struck once while Brojen Singh notched up a brace. The last one by Brojen was a beauty. He dived and sent a sizzling reverse shot off a cross from Sameer Dad. Gulam Moinuddin (two), Sheikh Samir and Santosh K Tigga scored for Madhya Pradesh in their Pool B tie against Pondicherry.Y

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.