South Central Railway, (SCR), Secunderabad struck prime form at the opportune moment and steamrolled past an uninspiring Bombay Republicans, Mumbai, coasting to a stunning 7-0 victory in a concluding Group-D encounter of the Mumbai Hockey Association Limited organized 54th All India Bombay Gold Cup hockey championship 2020 and played at the MHAL stadium, Churchgate on Sunday morning.
The massive victory enabled SCR confirm a berth in the semi-finals from this group. Both, SCR and Mubnai Customs, the third team in this group, finished with the same number of four points each. But, SCR with a superior goal-difference of plus seven (Gf 8-Ga 1) as compared to Customs pluse two (Gf 4-Ga 2), claimed the top spot and qualified for the semi-finals.
Later, Mumbai’s Central Railway went down fighting to defending champions Indian Oil, New Delhi by a 3-5 margin, in a Group-A match. Indian Oil scored through Aarman Qureshi who struck two goals, while Sunil Yadav and captain V.R. Raghunath scored from penalty corners and a field effort by Roshan Minz.
Central Railway scored through Rajendra Pawar, Ranjot Singh and Narad Bahadur.
Bombay Republicans showed promise and kept pace with the opponents initially. But, SCR finally broke Republicans resistance when Pratap Lakra converted a penalty corner in the final minute of the first quarter.
Thereafter, SCR completely dominated play and scored at regular intervals. Arjun Yadav and Raju Pal scored two quick goals in the second quarter and the visiting railway
Team went into the break with a 3-0 cushion.
Later, P.R. Aiyappa (37th & 58th minutes) and Lovepreet Singh (42nd & 54th minutes) struck the remaining four goals to complete the comfortable win.
Monday is a rest day. In Tuesday’s semi-finals, Indian Oil, New Delhi will meet South Central Railway, Secunderabad at 2.00 pm and later the Mumbai-based teams Coorg XI and Indian Navy clash at 4.00 pm.
The final is scheduled for Wednesday at 4.00 pm.
Results – Group-D: South Central Railway, Secunderabad 7 (P.R. Aiyappa 2, Lovepreet Singh 2, Pratap Lakra, Arjun Yadav, Raju Pal) beat Bombay Republicans 0.
Group-A: Indian Oil 5 (Aarman Qureshi 2, Sunil Yadav, Roshan Minz, V.R. Raghunath) beat Central Railway SA 3 (Rajendra Pawar, Ranjot Singh, Narad Bahadur).