Mumbai, May 18:
Rail Coach Factory (RCF), Kapurthala fought back from the brink of defeat to edge out local outfit Central Railway 6-5 via the sudden death in a pre-quarter-final match of the DCB Presents Aga Khan hockey tournament – 2011, at the Bombay Gymkhana ground, on Wednesday. The exciting and fast paced match ended 3-3 at the end of full time and 5-5 in the tie-breaker.
The Kapurthala side squandered a 2-0 first half lead and found themselves in arrears, trailing 2-3 with just a few minutes remaining. But, in the final moments they came up with a last ditch effort and earned a crucial penalty corner on the stroke of the final whistle. Three more short corners followed in succession and they found success with the fourth one when Gurwinder’s direct hit took a deflection of a defender’s stick and trickled into the goal much to the dismay of the railmen.
That goal provided the Punjab side a lifeline and they did not let the opportunity slip as they held their nerves in the penalty strokes duel to emerge winners. Both teams could only covert two of the five strokes each in the tie-breaker and the stalemate continued and forced the match into the sudden death. In the do-or-die sudden death Central’s Avesh Ansari’s weak push was saved by RCF goalkeeper Jaswinder Singh before Simrandeep Singh made no mistake to seal the win.
Later, Bombay Engineering Group (BEG), Pune sidelined another Mumbai outfit Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers (RCF) 5-2 in one-sided match played under floodlights. The younger and speedier Pune lads called the shots from the outset and always looked in control.
Ajay Kujur netted a brace, while Amol Bhosle, Rohit Dungdung and Samsulender added one apiece for the winners. For RCF, Mahesh Bagade and Suhas Patil were on target.
Results
RCF, Kapurthala 6 (Roop Singh 19th min, Kulbir Singh Sr 25th, Gurwinder 70+; tie-breaker – Simrandeep Singh, Gagandeep; sudden death – Simrandeep Singh) beat Central Railway 5 (Ajaz Qureshi 29th, Ather Mirza 46th, Navneet Swarnakar 53rd; tie-breaker – Nilesh Mane, Navneet Swarnakar).
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).
Today’s sports/ Sports Clock
DCB Present Aga Khan Hockey Tournament, Quarter-finals, RCF SA, Kaurthala vs South Central Railway, 5.00 pm; ONGC vs BEG, Pune, 7.00 pm, at Bombay Gymkhana ground, M.G. Road.