Vikas Choudhry was in impressive form and notched up a brilliant hat-trick in leading Hockey Bhopal to an emphatic 6-1 victory against an uncharacteristic Western Railway, Mumbai in a Group-B league match of the 14th PMC Bank-All India Guru Tegh Bahadur Gold Cup hockey tournament and played at the MHAL-Mahindra Stadium, Churchgate on Sunday. Hockey Bhopal scored five goals in the second period after leading 1-0 at the break.
This was the first win for the Bhopal side, who had lost to Indian Navy 2-5 on Sunday.
The artistic Choudhry displayed excellent ball control and dribbling skills and played the perfect role of schemer as he combined nicely with his teammates to give his team the edge. Choudhry opened the scoring in the 22nd minute when he cut in from the left and beat Western’s goalkeeper Saurabh Singh with a firm angular drive.
Hockey Bhopal completely dominated the second session and scored at regular intervals to run away to victory. In the 39th minute Manish Sharma scored from penalty corner before Choudhry provided a perfect pass for captain Taj Khan to tap home the third goal in the 54th minute and put the team in the drivers’ seat with a 3-0 cushion.
The visitors continued to mount pressure on the Western citadel and Choudhry was the tormentor as he struck two superb goals in the 58th and 65th minutes to give Hockey Bhopal a commanding 5-0 lead. Western managed to pull one back when Darshan Gawkar scored from a field effort in the 68th minute before Shakir Hussain hit Bhopal’s sixth goal in the final minute.
On Tuesday, joint champions South Central Railway take on Indian Navy in a Group-B match at 9.00am and later in Group-A encounters Punjab National Bank meet Union Bank of India at 2.30pm followed by the match between Air India and Central Railway at 4.15pm.
Results – Group-B: Hockey Bhopal 2 (Vikas Choudhry 22nd, 58th, 65th, Manish Sharma 39th, Taj Khan 54th, Shakir Husain 70th) beat Western Railway 1 (Darshan Gawkar 68th).