Debutants Coorg XI, Mumbai showed solid fighting qualities as they recovered from a 0-1 deficit and went on to record a convincing 3-1 victory against an experienced Northern Railway, New Delhi in a Group-C league match of the 54th All India Bombay Gold Cup Hockey Tournament 2020, organized by the Mumbai Hockey Association Limited and played at the MHAL ground, Churchgate on Saturday.
The Coorg outfit, coached by Olympian M.M. Somaya has now registered their second successive win in this three-team group and became the first team to advance to the semi-final. Coorg XI had earlier defeated Union Bank of India 5-2 in the first group match.
Coorg XI suffered an early setback when Hartaj Singh scored in the 11th minute to put Northern Railway in the lead, but the youngsters maintained their cool composure before bouncing back. The Coorg team restored parity when K.N. Thimmaiah scored the equalizer in the 21st minute of the second quarter. Later, they scored two more goals in the final quarter through Nachappa Advaith (49th minute) and B.M. Likhith (60th minute) to complete the win.
Later, MHAL Super League champions Indian Navy were in complete control and smoothly sailed past Central Bank of India by a 9-3 margin.
The sailor took pot shots at the rival citadel with Jugraj Singh converting two short corner while Aakib Raahim, Nitesh k., Ved Prakash, Kuldeep S., Gaurav Bhagtani, Pawan Rajbhar and Ajinkya Jadhav all scored one each from field efforts to complete the winning tally. Central Bank of India showed promise at the start and scored through Taleb Shah and Roshan Patil, both from penalty corner and Seraj Ahmad.
Results – Group-C: Coorg XI, Mumbai 3 (K.N. Thimmaiah, Nachappa Advaith, B.M. Likhith) beat Northern Railway, New Delhi 1 (Hartaj Singh) 11th minute
Group-B: Indian Navy 9 (Jugraj Singh 2, Aakib Raahim, Nitesh k., Ved Prakash, Kuldeep S., Gaurav Bhagtani, Pawan Rajbhar, Ajinkya Jadhav) beat Central Bank of India 3 (Taleb Shah, Roshan Patil, Seraj Ahmad).