Strong favorites Union Bank of India fought hard to overcome United Hockey Pune 8-6 in a tense and thrilling Men Open semi-final match, for the Victor D’Mello Memorial Trophy, in the 41st Willingdon Catholic Gymkhana rink hockey tournament, played at the WCG floodlit courts.
Prince Chaurasiya and Suraj Shali were the heroes of Union Bank’s win as they both recorded hat-trick of goals each. Vinod Saini netted the other two goals for Union Bank. United Hockey Pune scored through a brace of goals from Gufran Shaikh and Abdul Sulaimani while Atharva Kambli and Pranav Mane added one each.
In the other semi-final, C.T.C. defeated India Rush Blue 7-3. 7 Darshan Gawkar and Manpreet Singh both scored two goals apiece while Devinder Walmiki, Abhran Sudev, and Tejas Chavan scored one each for the winners. Danroy Fonseca, Shubham Redkar, and Het Pawar scored a goal each for the losers.
Earlier, in Veteran Men’s semi-final encounters, Sea View Sports Club eked out a narrow 1-0 win against Kalina Village Boys ‘A’ with Sanjay Fernandes scoring the winner. In the second match, Mumbai Raje Orange prevailed over Mumbai Raje White by a 3-1 margin. Madan Iyer, Meghraj Murthy, and Devinder Kumar scored a goal apiece for the winning team while the losing side scored through Neuman D’Souza).
Semi-final results – Veteran Men: Mumbai Raje White 3 (Madan Iyer, Meghraj Murthy, Devinder Kumar) beat Mumbai Raje White 1 (Neuman D’Souza).
Sea View SC 1 (Sanjay Fernandes) beat Kalina Village Boys ‘A’ 0.
Men: C.T.C. 7 (Darshan Gawkar 2, Manpreet Singh 2, Devinder Walmiki, Abhran Sudev, Tejas Chavan) beat India Rush Blue 3 (Danroy Fonseca, Shubham Redkar, Het Pawar).
Union Bank of India 8 (Prince Chaurasiya 3, Suraj Shali 3, Vinod Saini 2) beat United Hockey Pune 6 (Gufran Shaikh 2, Abdul Sulaimani 2, Atharva Kambli, Pranav Mane).