International Yuvraj Walmiki showed excellent finishing touch in hammering home five goals as Central Railway, Mumbai charged to an emphatic 6-4 win against South Central Railway in a Pool-B league match of the 11th PMC Bank-Guru Tegh Bahadur Gold Cup All India Hockey Tournament, being organised by the Mumbai Hockey Association Limited (MHAL) and played at the MHAL-Mahindra Stadium, Churchgate on Monday afternoon. Punjab & Maharashtra Cooperative (PCM) Bank is the sponsors of this tournament, which is being organised under the auspices of Hockey India.
Yuvraj Walmiki who scored five goals in Central Railway’s fluent 6-4 win over South Central Railway in action.
Aafan Yusuf scored the opening goal in the 34th minute before Yuvraj got into his goal scoring spree. Yuvraj netted his first and Central’s second goal in the 35th minute and then scored four more goals in the second session to knock the fight out of their southern opponents. Yuvraj’s solid efforts sealed Central’s passage to the semi-finals.
Last year’s runners-up South Central Railway tried their best to keep pace with the Mumbai outfit and managed to score four goals through Sandeep Singh (19th), Manikantan (42nd), Imran (48th) and Sunil Kumar (58th) to cut the margin of defeat.
Later in an inconsequential Pool-B match, Air India, who was assured of a place in the semi-final, went down rather tamely to Indian Oil losing 2-6. Both Air India and Central Railway finished with 9 points each, but the latter with a superior goal difference topped Pool-B. Indian Oil who could only manage 7 points from two wins and a draw made their exit.
In the second match of the day, defending champions Army XI were held to a 2-2 draw by a depleted BPCL (Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited) in a concluding Pool-A league encounter. The fitter Army side with 7 points from 2 wins and 1 draw claimed the second position behind ONGC (12 points) in the pool.
There will be no matches on Tuesday. In Wednesday’s semi-finals, ONGC will take on Air India at 3.00pm and later Army XI will meet Central Railway at 5.00pm.
Results – Pool-A: Army XI 2 (Chandan Aind 34, Anoop Topno 39) drew BPCL 2 (Sher Singh 14, Gurpreet Singh 70).1 (Mohd Aleem 39th).
Pool-B: Indian Oil 6 (Roshan Minz 6th, 65th, Prabhjot Singh 8th, 64th, Pradhan Somanna 20th, Deepak Thakur 51st) beat Air India 2 (Nirmal Chinnappa 58th, Vikas Pillay 63rd).
Central Railway 6 (Aafan Yusuf 34, Yuvraj Walmiki 35, 41, 49, 59, 69) beat South Central Railway4 (Sandeep Singh 19, Manikantan, Imran 48, Sunil Kumar 58).
Wednesday Semi-final fixtures
3.00 pm: ONGC vs Air India
5.00 pm: Central Railway vs Army XI