SUPER DIVISION LEAGUE

Gritty KSP pip Fortis

Bangalore: Two teams which began their campaign in the second phase of the Super Division on Thursday returned a mixed bag. Fortis, a mixture of players from all over the country, lost a close match to Karnataka State Police 4-5 while Indian Oil held Army Green to a 1-1 draw in the last fixture of the day at the SAI South Centre.

Drag-flicker Diwakar Ram’s superb three-goal effort was not enough for Fortis to pull off an unlikely victory after they found themselves down by two goals by the 11th minute. Diwakar’s goals came in the 16th, 40th and 47th minutes from the setpiece but a resilient KSP packed too many guns on this day for their rivals.

Chetan Kumar put KSP ahead in the third minute off a penalty corner before Umesh Mutgar (11th) and Pradeep (18th) added to the tally. Diwakar, who joined ONGC last month, kept firing at the other end but KSP proved more than equal, with Umesh and Pradeep finding the net once again to put the issue beyond doubt.

BPCL were too good for Pioneer Corps Training Centre as they thrashed them 5-1. Hogging the show on the midfield and cashing in on numerous errors at the Pioneers’ rearguard, BPCL dotted their dominance with goals at regular intervals. Ravipal Singh put his team ahead in the 11th minute off Jarnail Singh before Gurpreet Singh (penalty corner), Amar Aiyamma and Hariprasad (two goals) rounded off the tally. For PCTC, S Mundu pulled one back in the second half.

Indian Oil had to rely on drag-flicker VR Raghunath’s expertise to bail them out after Karthik put Army Green ahead in the sixth minute. A few missed chances did not help their cause but Raghu spared their blushes converting well in the 50th minute.