Friday, January 08, 2010: Star studded Air India recorded the highest goal margin victory in the 9th All India Guru Tegh Bahadur Gold Cup Hockey Tournament 2010 sponsored by Punjab & Maharashtra Co.Op.Bank played at Mahindra Stadium, Churchgate.
The airmen’s roughshod helpless Bhopal XI thrashing them by 20-0 score however the margin could have been much more but the airmen slowed down their attacks and played among themselves for most of the time after recess time Airmen leading by 10-0 score during lemon break.
Today’s being the 2nd outright win for the airmen accumulating six points they qualify for the semis from Pool ‘B’ while Central Railway and South Central Railway settled for a tame draw in the other qualifying tie played later on. So for the second team to qualify C.Rly have to beat Bhopal XI while S.C.Railway have tuff task they have Air India to beat.
However, S.C.Rly have garned four points from 2 outing while C.Rly have aggregated only 1 point from 2 outings. Scorers for Air India in the one sided tie- Taranjit Singh ( 5 goals ) M.K.Mudappa ( 4 goals ) Vinod Pillay ( 2 goals ) A.B.Cheeyana ( 2 goals ) Len Aiyappa ( 2 goals ) while Mathias Minz (1 goal) Ajmer Singh ( 1 goal ) Goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh ( 1 goal ) rounded up the tally in the goal rout.
Central Railway & South Central Railway tie turned out to be action packed while the former dominating the proceeding from the word ‘go’ in the very 1st quarter of the play time Central Rly earning 3 penalty corner’s at the stretch which went abortive, crafting excellent moves mostly from the flanks right and left keeping the S.C.Rly defence busy every now and then but failing to score.
The irony being C.Rly earning 9 penalty corner compared to S.C,Rly just one but none were converted by either sides. The score remained goalless till the final hooter. C.Rly enjoyed more circle penetration than S,.C.Rly but all went in vain.
However S.C.Rly could have broke the dead lock in the dying minutes ie. 66th minutes & 68th minutes during the only p.c earned by S.C Rly. C.Rly defender Vishal Gaikwad brought a goalline save thereafter 2 minutes later a defensive lapse by C.Rly defender Vishal at the circle S.C.Rly striker pushing wide of the target both sides had to contend with a draw earning one point each. The decider C.rly meeting Bhopal XI and S.C.Rly meeting Air India in due course.
Tomorrow, Western Railways will take on Namdhari Xi while ONGC will play Indian Oil