Johnson Ekka's hat-trick enabled hosts Andhra Pradesh begin their hockey campaign at the National Games in style.

They scoring a facile 4-1 win over Bengal in a Pool 'B' league match even as reigning champions Services were held to a 1-1 draw by Tamil Nadu in a Pool 'A' match at the Police ground in Begumpet, Hyderabad, on Saturday.

Earlier in the day, in a Pool 'B' match, Maharashtra, led by Dhanraj Pillay, took a giant stride towards winning the gold medal as they booked their place in the semi-finals, beating Karnataka by 2-0 for their second consecutive victory.

In another match in Pool 'A', Punjab downed Chandigarh 3-2.

Andhra Pradesh, who have the services of past and present India players like Mukesh Kumar, Bimal Lakra, Sameer Dad and Dilip Tirkey, packed too many guns for Bengal. They shot into the lead through an eighth minute penalty-stroke conversion by Bimal Lakra.

Ekka then took over, displaying some outstanding hockey. He scored his first goal in the 18th minute after receiving a cross from Mukesh Kumar from the right flank.

He was in the thick of action again in the 30th minute, flicking home from the top of the box following a long pass from Lakra.

After the change of ends a good move down the centre saw Mukesh pass the ball to Sameer Dad, who in turn relayed it to Ekka for him to complete his hat-trick and put his side 4-0 up in the 46th minute.

Andhra continued to launch raid after raid, opening up the defence of Bengal time and again but they could not add to their tally.

In the 71st minute Bengal pulled one back through Thomas Nag.

With this second consecutive defeat, Bengal are out of the running for a semi-final berth.

In the other match, which never rose to any heights, Services and Tamil Nadu played out a scrappy draw. Services took the lead in the 27th minute via a penalty-stroke conversion by Avatar Singh. However, Tamil Nadu came back strongly in the second-half and equalised in the 47th minute when S Valavan passed to Vimalnathan, who in turn gave the ball to Felix, who made no mistake - 1-1.