Indian Railways, IOC post contrasting wins

Indian Railways and Indian Oil Corporation posted convincing wins while defending champion ONGC opened its campaign with a 3-3 draw against Central Secretariat in the 92nd All India MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup Hockey tournament here Saturday.

Railways posted its second win, hammering Indian Army 5-1, which had won by a similar margin Friday against Mumbai HA.

IOC defeated Bengaluru HA 7-4.

The IOC-Bengaluru HA match saw action from the second minute when the former went ahead through a goal from Roshan Minz. Bharat Chikara increased the lead in the 13th minute when he beat the rival goalkeeper.

The IOC onslaught continued as they pumped in four more goals going into the interval.

Minz and Chikara added one each to their tally while Arman Qureshi and Gurjinder Singh too contributed goals.

The Bengaluru team fought back and pulled one back in the 45th minute through Sandeep Kumar Singh. Later, Pratap Lakra reduced the margin to 2-6 courtesy a penalty corner conversion.

IOC made it 7-2 with 10 minutes to go when Gurjinder got his second goal.

Bengaluru HA added two more goals in the 63rd and 70th minutes through M G Poonacha and Sharda Nand Tiwari respectively.

Railways showed intent right from the beginning and went ahead in the 6th minute when Karan Pal Singh found the net. Harsahib Singh made it 2-0 in the 18th minute.

The Army team pulled one back in 41st minute when Sanjay Toppo beat the Railways goalie.

Apparently stung by the Army goal, Railways scored three in quick succession to seal a commanding 5-1 win.

Defending champion ONGC was held to a 3-3 draw by the Central Secretariat (Delhi) in Pool 'A'.

ONGC fell behind 1-2 after opening the scoring in the 27th minute through Shilanand Lakra.

Central Secretariat surprised their formidable rivals by scoring twice in the space of three minutes through Mohit Kumar (30th) and Pawan Kumar (33rd).

After the lemon break, ONGC bounced back strongly to score in the 48th and 50th minutes to take the lead.

Jayesh Yadav's strike in the 60th minute secured the equaliser for Central Secretariat as they held for a draw.

In Pool 'B', Chennai Hockey Association held a strong Punjab & Sind Bank to a 1-1 draw.

Ganganpreet Singh put the bankmen in the lead in added time of the first half before Veeratamizhan cancelled it out in the 50th minute.

Results: Pool 'A': Indian Railways bt Mumbai HA 5-1; ONGC drew Central Secretariat 3-3.

Pool 'B': Chennai Hockey Association drew Punjab & Sind Bank 1-1; Indian Oil Corporation bt Bengaluru HA 7-4.