Union Bank of India, ONGC in semifinals
Sandeep Singh’s hat-trick helped Union Bank of India get past Western railway 3-2 and enter the semifinals of the Mumbai Hockey Championship played at the MHA Stadium, Churchgate on Wednesday. In the second match, ONGC beat Central Railway 4-1 to reaxch the last-four alongside the bankmen.
The railmen had shot into the lead with Suresh’s early strike in the 13th minute, but saw Singh level the scores seven minutes later with the first of his three penalty conversions. He went in the offensive early in the second half, and UBI were soon leading 3-1 from his twin-strikes within five minutes of each other. Manish Shahi reduced the margin in the 53rd, but Western Railway found the equaliser rather elusive and had to bow out of the tournament.
In another match, ONGC thumped Central Railway 4-1 on the back of a Pramod Kumar brace. It was the railmen who shot into the lead through Victo Singh’s 7th minute goal. But Pramod was on target taking the oilmen level 1-1 at lemon break, before doubling the lead on resumption. Arun Rawat (57th) and Ajub Ekka (63rd) put it beyond the railmen to take their team into the semifinals.
Results: ONGC 4 (Pramod Kumar 2, Arun Rawat 1, Ajub Ekka 1) bt Central Railway 1 (Victo Singh 1); Union Bank of India 3 (Sandeep Singh 3) bt Western Railway 2 (Suresh 1, Manish Shahi 1).
Rawat floors Jet Airways
Mukesh Rawat was bang on target as Naval Boys’ shot down Jet Airways 1-0 in a Second Division match of the Mumbai District Football Association (MDFA) league at the St Xavier’s ground, Parel on Wednesday.
Rawat netted the all-important winning goal in the 20th minute to give the sailors all three points.
Results: Division II: Sagar FC 2 (Sachin Dhanur, Prahlad Tandel) bt Super Soccer School ‘B’ 1 (Dhruv Sharma); Naval Boys’ 1 (Mukesh Rawat) bt Jet Airways 0; Falcon Brothers (Mulund) 8 (Siddhart Dhamle 2, Ankut Singh 2, A Jousha, Sudershan Joshi, Siddhart Lawande, Nikhil Nandkar) bt Super Soccer School ‘A’ 0.