Arjun Halappa struck thrice

Hyderabad: Arjun Halappa and Brojen Singh helped Indian Airlines thrash Bihar 11-1 and maintain a clean slate in pool A in the 61st senior national hockey on Tuesday.

In other matches, Delhi swept past Mizoram 9-4, Chandigarh registered an impressive 7-3 win over Pondicherry and Jharkhand routed Gujarat 7-1.

Indian Airlines, Services, Punjab and hosts Hyderabad are assured of the berth in the knock-out phase to be played Wednesday while the other 12 teams will be decided after the completion of the league matches.

Halappa, who scored three goals, drew first blood in the 12 minute and Brojen Singh scored a hattrick (14th, 19th and 22nd).

Afzal Hali made a valiant bid to net the lone goal for Bihar in the 42nd minute only to see Dhanraj Pillay hit back two minutes later.

Girish Pimpale scored a brace and Halappa struck again in the 55th minute.

M. Prakash continued to be in fine nick and his hattrick (22nd, 25th, 30th) powered Chandigarh to humble Pondicherry 7-3.

Leading 5-2 at half time, Gurtej Singh scored a brace for Chandigarh, while M. Harikishen, S. Chandrasekar and Senthil Kumar netted for Pondicherry.