IOC outplays Karnataka; Railways beats Mumbai

Chennai: It was an enjoyable fare for the goodly holiday crowd in the MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup hockey tournament at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium on Sunday.

There was a cornucopia of goals and plenty of action, sometimes exhilarating — the phase when goalkeeper Bharath Chetri brought off a string of acrobatic saves from the penalty corners struck by Raghunath.

But all this play of proficiency by Chetri proved of no avail as the Karanataka that he led eventually capitulated to the superior striking power of the formidable IOC for whom skipper, Deepak Thakur struck thrice.

The dominance of IOC was quite palpable and penalty corners — nine in all, surfaced in a spate. The battle that evolved between the seasoned Chetri and the effusive Raghunath kept the audience in a thrall.

Chetri’s saves

No less than six shots were saved by Chetri’s intrepid display and athleticism.
Unfortunately, the margin does not reflect its intensity; on the contrary it shows a decimation of the Karnataka XI.

Expectedly, Deepak Thakur led from the front the team for the second successive win in Pool A scoring in the early minutes. Then Didar Singh converted a stroke followed by a conversion by Raghunath.

The Karnataka attack might have lacked the method and aggression of the rival but individually Sandeep Michael and Somamma stood out.

Close on half-time Mudappa struck and midway in the second half Somanna’s opportunism brought the second goal. The scorer tapped in a rebound from goalkeeper Baljit Singh who palmed a cross from Nitthin. Not allowing the grip slip IOC slugged in two more, Deepak Thakur and Prabhjot Singh, hitting the target with panache.

Tirkey shines

The seasoned mid-fielder Ignace Tirkey guided the Services team to its second win in three matches in Pool B.

Not only did he show his mettle in netting two goals — both eye catching for their accuracy and power, but kept the frontline in a fluent mode.

Spraying passes to the wings with an imperceptible turn of the wrist, Ignace prompted the energetic Sunil and Rakeh Lakra to galvanise the attack into action.

Undaunted by the failure of Chittaranjan in the early minutes, the Arrmy XI escalated the pressure and emerged winner by a comfortable margin against a non-too-easy team to overcome. Sunil struck from the top of the circle followed by Ignace whose indirect conversion of the penalty corner put Army XI firmly under control.

Two goals by Jerum Kumar in the early minutes of the second half punctured the Namdhari defence. But the team strove hard to get back into the contest. A powerful hit by Karamjeet Singh who took advantage of a gap provided by the Army defence left goal-keeper P.T. Rao bemused.

Ignace, however, kept the leeway but in the final minute Namdhari XI’s Dilbaug (sr) restricted the margin. This was Namdhari team’s’ second defeat in as many days.

Indian Railway wins

Indian Railway recovered from a 1-2 deficit to prevail over Mumbai XI.
After the lead by Chandla Kesu, Railways succumbed to the pressure of Mumbai, which led 2-1 through the goals by Ajay Kumar and Yuvaraj Valmiki.

In the second half, Bharath leveled the score and Innocent Kullu shot in the match winner.

The results:

Indian Railways 3 (Chandla Kesu, Bharath, Innocent Kullu) bt Mumbai XI 2 (Ajay Kumar, Yuvaraj Valmiki) HT 1-2.

Army XI 5 ( Sunil, Ignace Tirkey 2, Jerum Kumar 2) bt Namdhari XI 2 (Karamjeet Singh, Dilbaug Singh Sr.) HT 2-0.

IOC 6 ( Deepak Thakur 3, Raghunath, Didar Singh, Prabhjot Singh) bt Karnataka 3 (Mudappa, Somanna, Deepak) HT 3-1

Monday’s matches: Air India v Orissa Sports Hostel (2-15 p.m.); Karnataka v IOB (4 p.m.); IOC v Mumbai (5-45 p.m.).