Gold Cup: South Central Railway, BPCL enter semi-finals

Holders South Central Railway (SCR), Secundrabad, and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), Bengaluru, today entered the semi-finals of the 52nd Bombay Gold Cup All India Hockey Tournament here today.

SCR moved a step closer towards the defence of their title with a hard-fought 2-0 win against the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, Delhi.

Former champions BPCL rode to an authoritative 5-2 win against another Delhi outfit, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).

SCR produced a steady performance and cashed in on the chances that came their way to secure the win over CAG.

SCR took the lead from a snap goal by Lovepreet Singh in the ninth minute.
 

Later Ponnacha M G tapped home the rebound after Ganadeep Singh's drag flick from a penalty corner came back off the goalkeeper Mrinal Choubey's pads in the 59th minute.

The BPCL side, boasting of a number of Olympians, current and former Indian stars and a couple of upcoming junior India players, outclassed ONGC in the other quarter final.

BPCL scored two quick goals inside the opening 10 minutes through S international S V Sunil and Md Amir Khan.

BPCL continued to push forward and struck the third goal when Lalit Upadhyay cracked home after receiving a pass from the left in the 24th minute.

Down 0-3 at halftime, ONGC managed to get on the scoreboard with two quick goals to reduce the deficit and threatened to fight back.

In the 42nd minute, international Gurjant Singh trapped a rebound from the post and sent the ball crashing to the net.

Then in the 55th minute another Indian star, Mandeep Singh, deftly deflected home a long hit from the right.

But, BPCL immediately hit back in the very next minute through Jarnail Singh, who scored their fourth goal with a firm reverse hit before Amir Khan found the target again for the team's fifth goal, which killed the contest.