South Central Railway, Secunderabad stormed into their maiden final with a fluent 6-1 win against a 10-man CAG (Comptroller & Auditors General) of India, Delhi in a semi-final match of the Union Bank of India & IDBI Bank-51st All India Bombay Gold Cup Hockey Tournament, organized by the Mumbai Hockey Association Limited (MHAL) under the auspices of Hockey India and played at the MHAL-Mahindra Stadium on Tuesday evening.
Later in the second semi-final played under floodlights, Punjab National Bank (PNB) outclassed former champions and fancied Indian Oil 3-1 to set up a clash with the Secunderabad outfit in Wednesday evening final.
CAG Defender Chandan Singh keeps the ball under control as a South Central Railway attacker P.R. Aiyappa tries to close in during their semi-final match of the MHAL .
The Punjab bankers dominated the opening session and the oilmen despite boasting of four Olympians, including two current internationals V.R. Raghunath and Kothajit Singh could not inspire them to change the script of the match.
The Punjab bankmen started with a flourish and forced the pace to wrest the initiative. The opened the scoring in the ninth minute when Gagandeep Singh Jr. converted a penalty stroke after his penalty corner try hit the body of a rival defender on the goalline. Later, PNB fired in two quick goals through Arjun Singh’s field effort in the 29th minute and Gagadeep’s penalty corner two minutes later. Punjab National Bank’s custodian Jasbir Singh also played a key role in the win by thwarting the penalty corners attempts by ace drag-flicker Raghunath. Indian Oil pulled one goal back when Raghunath finally converted a short corner six minutes into the second half.
Earlier, the hero of South Central’s win was their roving and hard-working forward P.R. Aiyappa who first provided the assists for the both the opening two goals which were scored by Raju Pal inside the opening 10 minutes. Later Aiyappa also showed excellent finishing skills by striking the next four goals in succession to complete South Central’s charge to victory and a place in the summit round. CAG managed to reduce the margin of defeat through Chandan Singh’s penalty corner conversion in the second session.
CAG’s skipper, Nitin Thimmaiah was sent off by umpire Shakil Ahmed for showing dissent. The former international Thimmaiah disputed the decisions of the umpire and kept arguing with him after receiving the green card which was followed with the yellow. The umpire was left with no other option but to remove the red card and flash it at the offending player.
Results (semi-finals): South Central Railway, Secundrabad 6 (Raju Pal 2nd, 10th, P.R. Ayappa 34th, 39th, 43rd, 61st) beat CAG 1 (Chandan Singh 51st).
Punjab National Bank (Gagandeetp Singh Jr. 9th, 29th, Arjun Singh 31st) beat Indian Oil, Mumbai (V.R. Raghunath 41st).