Wednesday, October 28, 2009: Oil & Natural Gas Corporation ( ONGC) and Mumbai Port Trust registered big wins in the Super Division League Hockey Tournament held at the Mahindra Stadium, Churchgate.
ONGC got the better of youthful Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers ( RCF ) by 3-1 margin while M.P.T upset Western Railway by 3-2 margin.
Youthful RCF pitted today against fancied ONGC displayed brilliantly but ONGC having 2 drag flickers in their armoury International & Junior India skipper Diwakar Ram and K.Jayantha ONGC force up into lead . Diwakar Ram fired drag flick back to back penalty corners ( 7th & 15th minutes ) 2-0 undeterred RCF youths tried hard to upgrade their raids on ONGC citadel they were successful too but ONGC defence manned by Olympian Harpal Singh and Diwakar Ram kept tight vigil to keep the youthful RCF strikers at bay just before the half way hooter RCF had a great chance to pull one back but striker Laxman Rao failed to connect a rebound of ONGC keeper Dinesh Ekka ( 34th minutes ).
After resumption RCF down by brace spiritedly fought against their much fancied as well as experience rivals ONGC but the ONGC defence stood solid like a rock. However RCF too were not far us defending against ONGC. As the score suggests RCF young keeper Ankit Gulia displayed awesomely under the bar, ONGC found the 3rd goal through a dummy display by Diwakar Ram and Jayantha as the later scored through drag flick ( 61st minutes ) a brilliant penalty corner variations 3-0 RCF immediately pull back one after 2 minutes defender Javed Ahmed converted directly 1-3. RCF tasted their second defeat in 6 ties played so far while ONGC kept intact their all win record so far in 7 matches played.
M.P.T the cellar side stunned Western Railway the former champions and one of the title aspirants by 3-2 margin. At lemon break W.Rly were up by a goal 1-0 score. W.Rly went to lead in the 11th minutes of the play time K.M.Chineppa scored from the pass by K.K.Bharat from the 25 yards 1-0. Thereafter reason best known to them ( W.Rly) could not accelerate their moves beyond midfield as they lack killing instinct in their attack while M.P.T after beating BEG ‘A’ the other day today too they displayed brilliantly. However, W.Rly once again went up adding one more striker deflected in a well measured pass from the axis by Amit Kumar 45th minutes (2-0). M.P.T improvising their method of game plan came up back to back equalizers. S.Krishmurthy converted direct penalty corner 1-2 ( 52nd minutes ) and Gurjot Singh converted indirect penalty corner in the 59th minutes ( 2-2) while the final nail was nailed in the coffin by M.P.T striker Manoj Antil in the 65th minutes when he brilliantly pushed into the cage a diagonal pass unleashed by Nishant Kumar 3-2. W.Rly received their first jolt in 6 matches while M.P.T’s 2nd win in 9 matches played so far still a match in hand (M.S.Police)
Tomorrow’s matches
Central Railway Vs BEG ‘A’
Air India Vs M.S.Police