Indian Oil moved a step forward towards the defence of their title as they advanced to the semi-final after recording an authoritative 7-2 win against local challengers Central Railway( CR) in a lopsided quarter-final match of the 53rd All India Bombay Gold Cup hockey championship 2019, organized by the Mumbai Hockey Association Limited (MHAL) and played at the MHAL-Mahindra Stadium, Churchgate on Saturday afternoon.
Later, Pratap Lakra scored a hat-trick converting three quick penalty corner to power South Central Railway, Secundrabad to a 6-3 win against Army XI, in the second quarter-final. Ajay Yadav scored a brace of goals and M.G. Poonacha got one for the railwaymen, while Army XI hit the target through Manpreet Singh, Binay Bhengra and Vishwa Thakur.
Defending champions, Indian Oil boasting of several former internationals in their line-up enjoyed smooth sailing throughout the match and punished Central Railway who adopted a very defensive approach.
Indian Oil took the lead in the sixth minute when Roshan Minz after latching on to Vickram Singh’s forward pass on the right quckly switched the ball to Talwinder inside the striking circle. Talwinder controlled the ball and beat goalkeeper Mujahid Khan with a firm reverse hit. Three minutes later drag-flicker Neelam Sanjay Xess scored from the first short corner to double the lead in the first quarter.
Those two blows proved to be the perfect wake up call for Central who came out from their defensive approach and started to show more positive intent in the second quarter and their efforts yielded two quick goals. Following a move down the right the ball came to Vikas Chaudhary who tapped in from close to cut the deficit in the 17th minute and later Rajendra Pawar converted a penalty corner in the 22nd minute to put Central Railway on level terms. But on the stroke of half time Affan Yousuf found the target to give Indian Oil a 3-2 half-time advantage.
However, Central seemed to have run out of steam as the Indian Oil forwards easily run through the rival defence and scored four more goals in the last two quarters to complete the demolition. Vickram Kant (44th min), Roshan Minz (49th min), Talwinder (57th min) and Bharat Chhikra (59th min) scored the remaining goals.
In Sunday’s quarter-final matches, MHAL XI meet Punjab and Sind Bank at 2.30pm followed by the match between BPCL and UP XI.
Results – Quarter-finals: Indian Oil 7 (Talwinder Singh 6th min, 57th min, Neelam Sanjay Xess 9th min-pc, Affan Yousuf 30th min, Vickram Kant 44th min, Roshan Minz 49th min, Bharat Chhikra 59th min) beat Central Railway 2 (Vikas Choudhary 17th min, Rajendra Pawar 22nd min-pc).
South Central Railway 6 (M.G. Poonacha 40th min, Pratap Lakra 48th min-pc, 52nd min-pc, 54th min-pc), Ajay Yadav 55th, 60th) beat Army XI 3 (Manpreet Singh 18th min, Binay Bhengra 50th min, Vishwa Thakur 57th min).