FARIDABAD: Sunil Chetri slammed in a hat-trick as Delhi rode on a little bit of luck to qualify for the pre-quarterfinals from Cluster VII in the National football championship for Santosh Trophy here on Tuesday.

Delhi was in a piquant situation going into the last league match against Railways. It had to win and hope that the other match in the cluster, between Jammu and Kashmir and Orissa, ended in a draw.

Delhi team heaved a sigh of relief after a goalless first half, where Railways had missed a few chances. The next 45 turned much to Delhi's expectations as Chetri struck at regular intervals with gusto while Orissa held a depleted Jammu and Kashmir to a goalless draw.

"After a wayward first half, we decided to keep the ball on ground and fight for chances," said Delhi skipper Chetri. "It was a do-or-die situation for us and we had just 45 minutes to turn the match in our favour," he added.

Railways' defence started to wane when Delhi substitute Ashish Ghildiyal joined playmaker Irfan Jama Khan to create chances. Chetri was upfront controlling much of the forward play when he pounced on the loose ball, after a melee, to put Delhi 1-0 up in the 57th minute.

Two minutes later, Irfan fed a long pass from the centre to Chetri and he surged ahead beating a defender. Railways' goalkeeper Naseem Akhtar rushed up but Chetri cut him nicely before sending a grounder into the net.

Meanwhile, the Delhi team management was hooked on to their mobile phone to keep abreast of the position in the other match being played at the Nahar Singh Stadium complex, a few kilometres from here.

In the 78th minute, Railways left open a huge gap for Delhi to pump yet another goal and Chetri chanced on it to complete his hat-trick.

Missing Wadoo

Jammu and Kashmir, which defeated Delhi in the cluster-opening match on Friday, was hugely favoured to qualify from the group. But its key striker, Mehrajuddin Wadoo, was forced to sit on the bench due to two yellow cards.

That blunted Jammu and Kashmir's firepower and Orissa did extremely well by playing out a goalless draw.

At Gurgaon, Chhattisgarh shocked Manipur when it held the 2002-03 champion to a goalless draw.

The result knocked out Manipur from the pre-quarterfinal race as Chhattisgarh made it through from Cluster V on the better goal average. Both Manipur and Chhattisgarh finished with five points from three matches.

In an inconsequential league match in Cluster V, Andhra Pradesh defeated Himachal Pradesh 4-0 at the Gurgaon Sports Complex.

Andhra led 3-0 at the half time through goals from Ayaz Bin Abdul Haq (26th and 34th) and Syed Altafuddin Ahmed (38th). Mohammed Fareed scored three minutes from close to complete the tally.

Wednesday's fixtures:

At Faridabad: Tripura v Uttaranchal and Tamil Nadu v Jharkhand.

At Gurgaon: Karnataka v Nagaland

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