Mumbai, May 19

South Central Railway (SCR), Chennai combined well to send Rail Coach Factory (RCF), Kapurthala crashing out with a 4-1 defeat in a quarter-final match of the DCB Presents Aga Khan hockey tournament – 2011, at the Bombay Gymkhana ground, on Thursday.

K K Bharat with two strikes was the hero of SCR’s win. N Ramesh and Poonacha scored one each to complete the tally, while Gurvinder Singh pulled one back for the Punjab side.

South Central Railway started on the right track and opened the scoring in the very seventh minute. Right outer Poonacha made a good run down the flank before hitting across for Bharat who made no mistake in finding the target.

The Kapurthala side play their third match in as many days, appeared a bit jaded but they fought on gamely and managed to draw level eight minutes later when Gurvinder after receiving Deepak’s forward pass beat SCR goalkeeper P Fokrelo to lift the spirits in his team.

However, SCR came up with two quick goals in as many minutes to dent the morale of the Punjab side. In the 27th minute, SCR captain N Ramesh scored following an indirect variation from their second penalty corner and later Poonacha scored with a diving effort off Prabhakar Singh’s cross from the left.

After the change of ends, the Chennai team continued to hold the edge over their opponents and managed to increase the lead through Bharat’s second goal in the 56th minute. Following a swift counter attack, Amit Srivas with a measured through pass found Bharat inside the circle and the latter neatly turned the ball past a hapless RCF goalkeeper Jaswinder Singh to confirm SCR’s passage to the semi-finals.

Results

South Central Railway, Chennai (K K Bharat 7th, 56th, N Ramesh 27th, Poonacha 29th, ) beat Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala (Gurvinder Singh ).

Today’s sports/ Sports Clock

DCB Present Aga Khan Hockey Tournament, Semi-finals, Indian Oil vs winners of ONGC and BEG, Pune, 5.00 pm; BPCL vs South Central Railway, 7.00 pm, at Bombay Gymkhana ground, M.G. Road.

This report is of Wednesday’s late match

In another match, Bombay Engineering Group (BEG), Pune sidelined another Mumbai side Rashtriya Chemicals (RCF) 5-2 in one-sided match played under floodlights. Ajay Kujur netted a brace, while Amol Bhosle, Rohit Dungdung and Samsulender added one apiece. For RCF, Mahesh Bagade and Suhas Patil were on target.

Results: BEG, Pune 5 (Amol Bhosle 4th, Rohit Dungdung 22nd, Ajay Kujur 59th, 62nd, Samsulender 63rd) beat RCF, Mumbai 2 (Mahesh Bagade 35th, Suhas Patil 68th).