Twice in arrears, Western Railway in splendid fashion fought back to score a 3-2 win against a spirited Indian Navy in a Pool-C league match of the 52nd Bombay Gold Cup Hockey Tournament, played at the MHAL-Mahndra Stadium, Churchgate on Tuesday.
Western Railway’s full backs international Amit Rohidass scored the first goal in the team’s 3-2 win against Indian Navy in a Pool-C league match of the 52nd Bombay Gold Cup Hockey Tournament.
The sailors on two occasions took the lead through Jugraj Singh penalty corner conversion in the 7th minute and Rana Pratap’s field goal in the 44th minute. But, the determined Western side replied back strongly with Amit Rohidass scoring from a short corner in the 40th minute, Rajin Kandulna in the 64th minute and the winner coming through a fine effort from Neelkant Sharma at the fag end of the match.
In a fast-paced match, in which both started aggressively and went on the offensive from the start, Navy wrested the initiative with Jugraj Singh scoring from their third penalty corner in the seventh minute.
Western made a strong reply and in the very next minute came close to scoring but Malak Singh fired wide from close after receiving a forward pass from Osaf-ur-Rehman and a little later the railwaymen wasted another golden opportunity with both Osaf and Jaikaran Kushwaha failing to connect from close and Navy went into the break with a slender 1-0 advantage.
It was left to international Amit Rohidass, who was a member of the bronze medal winning Indian team at the recently concluded Hockey World League in Bhubaneswar, to get the equalizer. Following their fourth penalty corner Rohidass with a firm low push finally managed to squeeze the ball past Navy goalkeeper R. Tidu in the 40th minute. But four minutes later Navy regained the lead with Pratap deflecting home Nitesh’s cross from the right.
The railwaymen came up with two fine attempts and converted them through Rajin Kandulna in the 64th minute and Neelkant Sharma in the 68th minute to snatch a deserving win.
Second match — Indian Air Force v/s Union Bank of India – Pool-D is in progress.
Results – Pool-C: Western Railway (Amit Rohidass 40th–PC, Rajin Kandolna 64th, Neelakant Sharma 66th) beat Indian Navy (Jugraj Singh 7th–PC, Rana Pratap 44th).
Pool-D: Indian Air Force Union Bank of India
Wednesday’s matches:
2.00 pm: ONGC vs Mumbai Customs – Pool-A
4.00 pm: CAG vs BPCL – Pool-B.
6.00 pm: Indian Navy vs Western Railway – Pool-C.