Today in the 68th Senior National Championship (Men) in Ayodhya, UP there were some brilliant matches played in the pre-quarters. The biggest news from pre-quarters was that of Haryana crashing out against home team UP. The top 8 teams played out the quarter finals late into Day-3 of 68th Senior Nationals.

Quarter Finals Results

Railways 34-30 Chandigarh : A tight battle but the champions had the last laugh. 

Rajasthan 68-33 Karnataka : Rajasthan's one man army and captain Deepak Niwas Hooda left no stone unturned. With 24 raid points in 14 raids, Deepak exposed a hole in Karnataka defense. For Karnataka it was Rathan K again scoring 13 points but it was not nearly enough. Rajasthan again has found a way to the semi-finals where they face the might of Railways. 

Services 43-18 Himachal Pradesh :  It was a clear battle between Services raiders - Naveen Kumar, Manjeet, Arjun Deshwal against the might of Himachal defense with the trio of Vishal Bharadwaj, Baldev Singh and Surinder Singh. But when the match flagged off, Services raiders clearly dominated proceedings to make it a one-sided affair. 

Maharashtra 38-37 Uttar Pradesh : Match started off neck and neck. However at half-time, UP had a comfortable 6 point lead at 22-16. Maharastra raiders came to the party in the second half with Siddharth Desai, Rishank Devadiga and Nilesh Salunke turning the score slowly in Maha favour. Abhishek Singh and Nitin Tomar were brilliant for UP. At the final whistle, the scores were tied at 31 each. The referees decided to go with a golden raid to decide the fortunes of the match. Rishank, Nilesh, Siddharth Desai successfully raided to get touch points for Maharashtra; on the other hand UP raiders Nitin Tomar and Rohit Baliyan only brought home bonus point. To tilt things towards Maha, was an unsuccessful raid by Rahul Chaudhary to give a 3 point lead to Maharashtra. A couple of super-tackles in the dying minutes almost shifted the match in UP's favour but as the final whistle blew, it was Maharashtra with a one point lead and a place in the semi-finals. Maharashtra will face Services in the semi-finals. Maha raiders will face the raiders from Services.