Maintaining the impressive winning run of form Chhattisgarh outfit Bhilai Steel Plant sent defending champions Western Railway crashing out by carving out a hard-fought 6-5 via the tie-breaker in a Women’s Open quarter-final match of the Bandra Gymkhana Annual Rink Hockey Tournament 2023 and played at the Gymkhana’s turf late on Wednesday evening.
The tense and thrilling match finished in a 2-2 draw and in the ensuing penalty strokes duel the visiting team from Chhattisgarh showed better nerves to win the tie-breaker 4-3.
For Bhilai Steel Manisha Dhawal scored two goals while Akanshi Bhagel, Payal D., Abbu Sharma and Shivani Kumari scored one each to secure the win, while Western Railway scored through the efforts of Manisha Chauhan and Anupa Barla, both scoring two goal each and Prablain D. adding one.
In another match, Central Railway defeated Sports Authority of India Red by a close 4-2 margin. Central scored through a brace of goals from Raju K., and one each from Kanchan Niddhi and Preeti Dubey, while Sports Authority scored through Pooja Rathod and Isha L.
In Men’s Open action, Republicans SC scraped past CTC (Champions Training Centre) Red by a narrow 3-2 margin. Republicans scored through the twin strikes from Shreekishan Chaurasia and one from Ramashankar Sonkar, while Manpreet Singh and Taleb Shah scored for CTC.
Meanwhile, Mumbai Customs White and Mumbai Customs Red advanced to the semi-finals. Customs White defeated Western Railway 1-0 with Iktidar Ishrat scoring the decisive winner. Later Customs Red got the better of Companeroes SC by a fighting 5-3 margin. Mutthana B.K. scored two goals and Pankaj Singh, Dharamvir Yadav and Dhyanesh S. added one each to complete Customs Red win while Companeroes scored through a brace of goals from Sanket Dhotre and one through Daniel D’Souza.
Results – Women Open (Quarter-finals): Bhilai Steel Plant 6 (Manisha Dhawal 2, Akanshi Bhagel, Payal D., Abbu Sharma, Shivani Kumari) beat Western Railway 5 (Manisha Chauhan 2, Anupa Barla 2, Prablain D).
Sports Authority of India White 2 (Sonali B., Himanshi D.) beat Don Bosco Academy 1 (Pranali Patil(.
Central Railway 4 (Raju K., Kanchan Niddhi, Preeti Dubey) beat Sports Authority of India Red 2 (Pooja Rathod, Isha L.).
Men Open (Quarter-final): Union Bank of India 8 (Monit Karhoule 3, Suraj Singh, Bhim Batala, Navin Kheratkar, Aamid Khan, Harsh Rakshree) beat Pune Hockey 1 (Chirag Mane).
Mumbai Customs White 1 (Iktidar Ishrat) beat Western Railway 0.
Mumbai Customs Red 5 (Mutthana B.K. 2, Pankaj Singh, Dharamvir Yadav, Dhyanesh S.) beat Companeroes SC 3 Sanket Dhotre 2, Daniel D’Souza).
Republicans SC 3 (Shreekishan Chaurasia 2, RamashankarSonkar) beat CTC Red 2 (Manpreet Singh, Taleb Shah).