Arvind Kumar gives Bihar victory

A brace by centre-forward Arvind Kumar gave Bihar a 2-1 victory over Andhra in a Group 'A' league match of the 60th Senior National hockey championship in Hyderabad on Tuesday.

Kumar first converted a penalty-stroke in the 19th minute to give his side the lead before A E Sekhar Babu could score the equaliser for Andhra in the 29th minute. He then again struck in the 62nd minute, when he converted a pass, to give Bihar victory.

The Bihar-Andhra tie was originally scheduled for the opening day but since the Bihar team arrived late it was played on the rest day.

Indian Railways and hosts Hyderabad, with three victories each and two more matches to go, jointly lead the points tally. The top two teams of each group will enter the Super League.

In Madras, Tamil Nadu overcame a first half struggle to beat Food Corporation of India 3-0 for their second successive win in Pool 'C'.

Tamil Nadu's key man in the attack, Prabhakaran, was closely marked the FCI defenders.They did a splendid job, and it was not till the 69th minute that the mercurial centre-forward managed to squeeze home a goal.

The FCI defenders gamely held on till the 52nd minute of the second session until medio Senthil finally put the hosts into the lead.

In a fine move from the left flank, Tamil Nadu banged in another goal as Cedric D'Cruz made it 2-0 four minutes later before Prabhakaran could round off the tally.