CHENNAI: Indian Railways will take on Hockey Karnataka in the final of the 94th All-India MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup hockey tournament on Sunday.
A strong Railways team knocked out Punjab National Bank 3-2 while Hockey Karnataka edged out Indian Army Red 4-3 via the penalty shootout at the Mayor Radhakrishnan stadium on Saturday.
In the Railways-PNB match, three minutes into the game, Indian Railways were accorded the first penalty corner of the game with Pratap Lakra making no mistake in converting the shot. It was an early lead and minutes later Anugrah Kujur penetrated the Punjab penalty area and successfully converted his shot to score Railway’s second goal of the match.
At the end of the first quarter, Indian Railways led the match 2-0.
Punjab National Bank started the second quarter on a stronger foot with Sanjay converting his penalty corner in the 17th minute to revive the contest. The score remained that way at the end of the first half with Railways leading 2-1.
In the fourth quarter, Arjun Sharma almost sealed the game for the Railways, scoring in the 55th minute, it was a consolation for Punjab as Gursimran Singh scored their second goal in the dying minutes of the game.
In the Hockey Karnataka-Indian Army encounter, the two teams were tied 1-1 at full time. Indian Army went ahead in the 9th minute through Rajant’s strike. It was cancelled out by Chelsea Medappa’s goal for Karnataka in the 22nd minute. Hockey Karnataka won the shootout 4-3 in the sudden death after they were level at 3-3 in the tie-breaker.
SV Sunil and Nikkin Thimmaiah scored for Hockey Karnataka as the tie-breaker spilled to the sudden death. Jobanpreet Singh converted for PNB while Sumeet Pal Singh muffed the chance.