Railways to face Indian Navy in the final of Murugappa hockey
The highly anticipated clash between two formidable teams, however, turned out to be one-sided as the Railways team blew away the opposition with a superb display.
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CHENNAI: Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) trounced Indian Oil Corporations (IOC) 7-1 on Saturday to reach the final of the 96th All India MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup Hockey Tournament in Chennai.
The highly anticipated clash between two formidable teams, however, turned out to be one-sided as the Railways team blew away the opposition with a superb display.
Darshan Gawkar put Railways in front in the fifth minute with a field goal only to see IOC hit back in the very next minute through Affan Yousuf. That was the only time IOC appeared to be in the contest as Railways chugged away with some good strikes. Gawkar scored again in the 10th minute to put Railway 2-1 ahead before Pankaj Rawat stepped up with two penalty corner conversions as the team pulled ahead in style. At half-time, the score read 3-1 in Railways' favour. The Railways pumped in four more goals in the next two quarters as the stunned IOC defence could not handle the onslaught. Shivam Anand increased the lead to 4-1 when he beat the IOC custodian in the 30th minute. This was followed by Hartaj Aujla's goal in the 44th minute. Rawat added two goals, one via a penalty corner and other a field goal as Railways completed the rout.
In the other semifinal, Indian Navy rode on goals from Ashish Topno and Rajat Minz to oust Indian Navy 2-0 to make it to the tournament's final for the first time.
In an even contest with the teams vying for supremacy, the first half failed to produce any goal though there was a good battle. Ashish Topno broke through when he converted a penalty corner in the 31st minute. The score stayed 1-0 in Navy's favour for nearly the rest of the match. In Quarter 4, Army got back-to-back four PC opportunities but they could not convert any of them. Indian Navy sealed their victory with Rajat Minz’s field goal in the 57th minute to win 2-0 and set up a title clash with the defending champions Railways, on Sunday.
Results: Indian Railways 7 (Darshan Gawkar 5, 10; Pankaj Rawat 17, 51, 54; Shivam Anand 30, Hartaj Aujla 44) bt Indian Oil Corporation 1 (Affan Yousuf 6); Indian Navy 2 (Ashish Topno 31; Rajat Minz 57) bt Indian Army 0