Easy for Indian Oil, Air India
21st April 2009:
Indian Oil and Air India registered fluent wins in their opening group matches in the elite quarter-final league of the 47th Bombay Gold Cup Hockey Tournament at the MHA-Mahindra Stadium on Wednesday.
Guru Tegh Bahadur runners-up Indian Oil swamped 2005 winners Western Railway 9-1, after leading 4-1 at half time in a Group C encounter.
Indian Oil, who next take on Border Security Force, took a firm grip of the proceedings to dominate the match after being stunned by an early Western strike.
Much was expected of local giants Western after taking a surprise lead in the very second minute through Hardeep Singh.
But Indian Oil put behind the early setback and proved a formidable squad as Hamza Mujtaba slotted in four goals, Roshan Minz scored two and Didar Singh, Kamlesh Parihar and Sunil Yadav added to the tally.
Earlier, Air India, who won back-to-back Bombay Gold Cup titles in 2001 and 2002, blanked Panposh XI, Orissa 4-0 in Group B.
Guru Tegh Bahadur winners Air India, who next face Karnataka XI, surged to a 3-0 lead at half time after keeping the talented Panposh in check, and reserved their energy for sterner tests ahead with just one goal in the second half.
Air India, who also were runners-up in 2007, scored through Sameer Dad, Bruno Lugun, Brojen Singh and Sandeep Michael.
Results: Group B: Air India 4 (Sameer Dad, Bruno Lugun, Brojen Singh, Sandeep Michael) bt Panposh XI 0.
Group C: Indian Oil 9 (Hamza Mujtaba 4, Roshan Minz 2, Didar Singh, Kamlesh Parihar, Sunil Yadav) bt Western Rly 1 (Hardeep Singh).
THURSDAY: 2.15 p.m. Southern Rly vs Army XI (Group A); 4.15 p.m. BPCL vs Punjab & Sind Bank (Group D)