Thimmaiah scores goal in CAG's victor

International Nitin Thimmaiah scored a goal on his comeback trail from injury as Comptroller and Auditor General of Delhi outclassed local outfit Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers 4-2 in the Dabang Mumbai 50th Bombay Gold Cup hockey tournament today.
In the other league match of the day, local side Indian Navy drubbed Hockey Bhopal by an identical scoreline after the teams were level 1-1 at half-time.
Thimmaiah gave himself a birthday present, a day in advance, by beating three defenders following a solo run from outside the 'D' as well as on-rushing rival custodian Karan Thakur to score CAG's second goal a minute before the end of the opening half of the Group 'B' game against RCF here.

CAG, whose players came from all over India and trained for two days under makeshift coach Clarence Lobo, went ahead through Naeemuddin Mohammdad's field goal off a rebound from Thakur's pads in the 30th minute.
Changing over, RCF reduced the lead in the 39th minute with a hard reverse-hit goal by Rajendra Pawar. But two field goals in the space of eight minutes by the Delhi outfit, scored by Deepanshu Bhargav, who had laid a superb pass for Thimmaiah to cash in earlier, dashed RCF's hopes.
In the 51st minute, Bhargav scored with an angular shot after Thimmaiah, who suffered a serious forearm injury on the trip to Bangladesh last year that needed surgery, surged into the circle and was blocked. Bhargav was again on target later following a quick counter-attack on the right flank.

RCF scored their second goal off their sixth penalty corner award after the hooter via Dhananjoy Singh.

In an earlier Group 'C' clash, Navy overcame Bhopal by pumping in three goals in the second half. The sailors scored goal via a penalty corner from Suman Sachin in the 8th minute that was neutralised by Bhopal's Abhey Kumar in the 17th.
Changing ends, Navy scored twice in as many minutes through Nitesh and Jugraj Singh to take a 3-1 lead before Sahir Mohammad struck in the 53rd to reduce the gap.
A field goal by Rana Pratap 10 minutes before the end sewed it up for the sailors.