PNB, Indian Oil record wins, enter quarters

Union Bank of India, Mumbai, went down fighting 2-3 to Punjab National Bank, Delhi, in the final Pool-D league match of the Union Bank of India-52nd Bombay Gold Cup Hockey Tournament here today.
Both the bank teams, however, advanced to the quarter-finals from this pool. PNB topped the pool and will meet Western Railway, Mumbai, while Union Bank will take on Indian Oil in the last eight.
Earlier, the oilmen, former title winners, eased to a fluent 6-3 win against Indian Navy in an all-Mumbai Pool-C clash at the MHAL-Mahindra Stadium.
Quarter-final line-up is: CAG, Delhi v South Central Railway, Secunderabad; BPCL, Bengaluru v ONGC, Delhi; Indian Oil, Mumbai v Union Bank of India, Mumbai; Western Railway, Mumbai v Punjab National Bank, Delhi.

PNB, winners of the Shastri Hockey and Nehru Hockey tournaments last month, took the lead against Union Bank through a snap field-goal through Shamsher Singh in the 11th minute before Sanjay scored the second in the 29th minute to give the Delhi side a 2-0 half-time lead.
After switching ends, Union Bank came back strongly and scored twice through Nitin Kumar in the 48th minute and Aakib Rahim in the 54th minute to level the scores.

Union Bank continued to press for another goal, but seemed to have left their guard down at the back and conceded a third goal with Sukhjit Singh netting PNBs match-winner in the 61st minute.

In the Indian Oil-Navy encounter, skipper and Olympian Raghunath Vokkaliga (39th and 66th minutes) and Affan Yousuf (58th and 70thminutes), both played the lead roles scoring two goals each, for the winners.
Vikramjeet Singh (7th minute) and former India star Bharat Chikara (29th minute) scored once each to complete the tally.
The sailors scored through Ved Prakash (20th), S. Kumar (45th minute) and Mohit S Thakur (47th minute).