Youngster Gurjinder Singh, who was expected to be at Johor Bahru representing India, it seems, gave vent to his missing out with a hattrick of goals against South Central Railways in the knock-out match of the Nehru Cup, played on the same day Indian colts engaged Germany in Malaysia in the final.
Assisted by his timely goals, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, outplayed SC Railways 8-3.
The burly youngster, who grabbed Rs. 1 crore Player of the WSH, struck goals in the 4th, 17th and 26th minutes to set the stage for others to follow before adding another in the 40th minute.
veternas Deepak Thakur and Prabhjot Singh, new comer Gunasekar and Affan Yousuf added a goal apiece to outsmart the Railwaymen.
Gagandeep Singh posted all the three goals of losing Railwaymen, one from penalty corners others through stroke conversion.
In the second match of the day, bank teams from Delhi and Jalandhar fought, the honours going to the latter.
The evenly played match went in favour of PSB at 5-3 scoreline.
PNB conceded four goals in the first half without a reply, and came on its own only in the second half with the first goal coming from the stick of Jitender Saroha. Shivdeep Singh and Ajitesh Roy are the other strikers for the losing team.
Karamjit Singh, brace of goals, Parminder Singh, Ramandeep Singh and Harpreet Singh struck goals for PSB.
Tomorrow ONGC will play Army XI while the second match will be between Air India and Bangladesh XI.