Former champions Air India had hoped to regain the title but all their plans came crashing down as they suffered a shock defeat to underdogs Sea View SC by a 7-8 margin via the sudden death tie-breaker in a men’s quarter-final round match of the Bandra Gymkhana 30th Open Rink Hockey Tournament, played at the Bandra Gym’s tennis courts. The full-time scores were level at 4-4 and stalemate continued as the tie-breaker score was 3-3.
Lawrence Soares scored two early goals for Sea View
Sea View started with a bang as forward Lawrence Soares scored twice inside the first five minutes to give them a 2-0 lead at half-time. In the second half, Sea View added two more goals through Gavin Vandrine and Shelton Carvalho. But Air India guided by former internationals fought back and Devinder Kumar (2 goals) and Darryl D’Souza and Girish Pimple one each forced the draw. In the tie breaker, Sea View scored through Shelton Carvalho, Gavin Vandrine and Leon Soares, while Air-India got their goals from Cornelius D’Costa, Davinder Kumar and Girish Pimple.
In the crucial and tense sudden death, Air India’s Cornelius D’Costa failed to score but Sea View’s Leon Soares did well to score and snatch the win for his team and seal their berth in the last four round.
In the semi-finals, Sea View will meet Bombay Republicans who defeated Central Railway 5-4 also through a tie-breaker contest after the match was locked at 3-3.
In other quarter-final matches, Hockey Santacruz outplayed Companeroes SC 5-3 and last year’s runners-up Mumbai Customs got the better of Hockey Dadar 8-7 via the sudden death penalty strokes.
Results (quarter-final round): Bombay Republicans 5(Venkatesh 3, Sanket Dhotre 1, Amin 1) bt Central Railway 3(Boon D’Souza 2, Harbay Singh 1, Roshan Keishan 1) .
Hocke y Santacruz 5(Karan Kapor 4, Shane Fletcher 1) bt Companeroes SC 3(Lyndon Zuzarte 2, Rohan Shinde 1).
Sea View SC 8 (Lawrence Soares 2, Shelton Carvalho 2, Leon Soares 2, Gavin Vandrine 2) bt Air India 7 (Devinder Kumar 3, Girish Pimple 2, Darryl D’Souza 1, Cornelius D’Costa 1).
Mumbai Customs beat Hockey Dadar 8-7 via the sudden death penalty strokes.