Later in the day, in much warmer conditions, Central Excise recovered from an early deficit to defeat Madhya Bharat 4-1, notching up their fourth straight win of the tourney to become the first team to enter the quarter-finals in the bottom half of the draw.

The Excisemen, now await the winners of pool I, which would be decided on the morrow after the clash between Punjab & Sind Bank and Air-India. PSB, on their part, led by Sandeep Seep's hat-trick, won their day's engagement against Madhya Pradesh by a 20-0 margin thereby putting them in a position of comfort in pool I. PSB, with a goal differenceof 41 (For- 42), now need only a draw against Air-India, who have a GD of 38 (For- 39).

In the other pool in the half -- H, Central Reserve Police Force remained in the reckoning for the lone last eight berth from the pool by drubbing Assam 20-0. CRPF's big win, their third in the pool helped them complete their league engagements with nine points and a GD of 31. Services, one of the two other contenders in the pool, now need to win their match against Bengal on Monday by at least five goals to make it to the knock-out. Bengal, already on nine points, need only a draw.

It was the TN-Bhopal match that turned out to be the most interesting of the day, for the surprise element involved in the result. TN's attack with L Prabhakar kept under tight leash by Haseebuddin lacked the customary sting.

Even as TN were wondering about ways to manoeuvre past the doughty rival defence, Bhopal jolted them with an early goal, as early as the 8th minute. Athar Khan's drive off the side's first penalty corner went in offgoalkeeper Natarajan's pads.

TN, did well to recoup five minutes later to score through a penalty stroke awarded by umpire Blaize Monteiro penalising Bhopal defender Sarwar for a rough tackle on Radhakrishnan, which TN forward himself converted. Their next success came only after eight minutes and three penalty corners through skipper Thirumalvalavan, who otherwise had a forgettable day.

The Bhopal fight was not be undermined at that stage, for, they not only restore parity, but also regained their lead. First, five minutes after resumption, Farzan made the most of a Aslam cross from the right and then in the 57th. Hameedullak utilised a goalmouth melee and a TN defensive lapse to make it 3-2.

It took the 59th minute stroke conversion by Radhakrishnan again to save TN from defeat. Umpire Shivdas pulled up Haseebuddin for `lifting his stick' above his shoulder to clear an attempt by Dinesh Naik during TN's ninth penalty corner and Radhakrishnan gleefully accepted the opportunity.

The draw has keptBhopal too in contention with the advantage of getting to know to how many goals they need to score when they play the last match of the preliminary stage -- against Patiala, under lights on Monday. TN play Manipur earlier in the day.

RESULTS

(Pool G): Central Excise: 4 (Rajinder, Suresh, Adolf, Rahul Singh 1 each) b Madhya Bharat 1 (Pool H): CRPF 20 (Jolen Topno, Tanveer Jamal 5 each; Mukesh Kumar 4; Karan Raj 3; Toper Kujur 2; Romikanta 1) b Assam: 0 (Pool I): PSB: 20 (SS Seep 6 (including a HT); Parminder 5; Bikramjit 4; Baljit Saini 2; SS Ghuman, Rajinder (Jr), Sanjeev Kuamr 1 each) b MP: 0 (Pool J): TN: 3 (Radhakrishnan 2; Thirumalvalavan 1) drew with Bhopal: 3 (Athar Khan, Farzan, Hameedullak 1 each). Manipur: 2 (Hemanta Singh, Sanjit Singh 1 each) b Patiala: 1 (Kamaldeep Singh 1)

Monday's matches: Services Vs. Bengal (H); TN Vs. Manipur (J); MP Vs. Universities (I); Tatas Vs. Chandigarh (G); Air-India Vs. PSB (I); Karnataka Vs. Delhi (G); Patiala Vs. Bhopal (J).