Mumbai Super League champions Indian Navy and Central Railway, Mumbai, both scored contrasting wins from their respective pool matches of the Mumbai Hockey Association Limited (MHAL) organized 51st All India Bombay Gold Cup Hockey Tournament, which commenced at the MHAL-Mahindra Stadium on Monday. The tournament is being conducted under the auspices of Hockey India.
A Bombay Republicans forward Akbar Khan (centre) is surrounded by three Indian Navy players during their Pool-D league match ..
Indian Navy struck late form and cruised to a fluent 4-0 win against Bombay Republicans in a Pool-D league match in the afternoon and later in the evening, Central Railway staved off a late fight back from Army XI, Delhi to chalk out a hard-fought 2-1 victory in Pool-B.
The seasoned Navy outfit started positively and took an early lead with Jugraj Singh scoring from a field effort in the 10th minute. Thereafter, the Sailors were contained by the young Republicans side that put up an impressive performance and did well to restrict their rivals to a slender 1-0 half-time lead. However, in the second period, the Naval attackers cashed in on the chances that came their way and scored thrice during this period to run away with the match. In the 50th minute Kuldeep Singh (Junior) tapped in the second goal before Nitin Pawar deflected home the third in the 61st minute. Navy scored their fourth through Pawan Rajbhar following an indirect penalty corner drill in the 69th minute.
Later in the evening, Central took off on the right track and took the lead in the very second minute through a peach of an effort by Mohammed Nizamuddin, who deftly deflected home Rajendra Pawar’s assist from the right. Ten minutes later, Central from a swift counter scored the second goal through Pawar, who did well to trap Anup Walmiki’s forward pass before slotting past Army goalkeeper Dhanesh P.
The armymen came back fighting after the breather and made a series of raids towards the Central citadel and totally dominated the second period. They also earned a half dozen penalty corners, but could only convert from one when Rahul Singh beat Central goalkeeper Avadhut Solankar in the 47th minute to reduce the deficit. Later, Solankar and defender Ruben Kedari made some fine saves to deny the Army side from finding the equalizer.
Results – Pool B: Central Railway 2 (Mohammed Nizamuddin 2nd, Rajendra Pawar 12th) beat Army XI 1 (Rahul Singh 47th).
Pool D: Indian Navy 4 (Jugraj Singh 10th, Kuldeep Singh (Jr.) 50th, Nitin Pawar 61st, Pawan Rajbhar 69th) beta Bombay Republicans 0.
Tuesday schedule:
2.30 pm: Hockey Karnataka vs South Central Railway – Pool ‘A’
4.30 pm: Punjab National Bank vs Delhi XI – Pool ‘C’