Central Railway dished out a smooth, slick performance and sent Western Railway crashing to a 4-1 defeat in a Super Division match of the Mumbai Hockey League 2022-2023, jointly organized by Hockey Mumbai City and Hockey Mumbai Suburbs, and played at the Don Bosco High School Hockey Turf, Matunga on Sunday evening.
Pankaj Singh provided Central Railway with the perfect start as he converted a penalty corner in the very fourth minute to give his team the advantage. But, Western Railway showed plenty of fight and four minutes later drew level with Shubham scoring the equaliser with a field effort.
A Republicans SC player (left) and a CTC player during their Super Division match
Central Railway continued to probe and Vinit Kamble scored the first of his two goals to help his team regain the lead in the 21st minute and go into the break with a slender 2-1 lead. On resumption, struck two more goals in the third quarter through Vishal Pillay who scored from another penalty corner and Kamble just before the end of the quarter. In the final quarter, there was no change to the scoreboard and Central trooped out worthy winners.
In another match played on Saturday evening, CTC defeated the youthful and inexperienced Rapublicans SC 9-1.
Results: CTC 9 (Affan Yousuf 3, Manpreet Singh 2, Amid Khan Pathan 2, Tejas Chavan, Aditya Rasal) beat Republicans SC 1 (Saurabh Mayekar).
Central Railway 4 (Vinit Kamble 2, Pankaj Singh, Vishal Pillay) beat Western Railway 1 (Shubham Singh).