Army beats PNB for its second win

Hockey Correspondent

Chennai: There was precious little to relate in eloquent terms about the programme in the MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup hockey tournament on Saturday.

The matches sunk into spells of monotony as the teams struggled to strike a rhythm to the satisfaction of a fairly large crowd at the Mayor Radhakrishan Stadium.

Interest centred round the outcome of the matches. The Army outfit recorded its second win overcoming the challenge posed by the new entrant, Punjab National Bank.

Fit and forceful, the Army men held the territorial advantage for the major part. The nippy Argumugam led the frontline with a touch of assurance.

But it was Rajesh Kumar who slotted in the lead for Army early in the game and expectedly, Arumugam, flashed into the picture with a clever shot to widen the leeway.

Marked inconsistency rendered futile whatever effort the PNB attack managed to project. However, PNB obtained a fine goal when international Bruno Lugan worked well with Navdeep Singh to narrow the lead.

In the closing stages a combined move between Bhengra and Mundu culminated with the latter netting the third goal for Army.

Easy for ONGC

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) proved conclusively that its victory over Air India in the opening game on Friday was no fluke by recording a comfortable 3-1 victory over Karnataka in a Pool A match.

Almost throughout the first half, ONGC dictated terms thanks to the insipid defence work by Karnataka. However, goalkeeper Tarundn Tmanna baulked a couple of attempts from penalty corners by Diwakar Ram.

But ONGC switched on the pressure repeatedly. Midway through Sandeep Antil struck from a penalty corner to hoist the lead. Thereafter, ONGC held the whip hand adding two more through Bikesh and Jagwant before the break.

Fluent moves

Whatever fight back the Karnataka outfit is capable of came in the second half. There were fluent moves led by Anup Antony escalating stress on the ONGC defenders. Goalkeeper Kamaldeep Singh brought off a splendid save from Naveen Shekar in a penalty corner.

A combined move involving Aiyappa, Rafieeq and Vincent Michael almost ended in a goal but for a melee leading to a penalty corner. Mohan Kumar’s withering shot was stopped well but Deepak Bijwad managed to pump the ball in. This was Karnataka’s best moment in the match.

ONGC has six points from two games, while Karnataka has a solitary point from its drawn match against IOB.

Indian Railways picked up full points scoring twice — once in each half — against Mumbai. Much was expected from Mumbai after its splendid show against IOC on Friday, although the margin did not clearly mirror that, but on Saturday, the teams laboured to make a match of it in Pool B.

Railways struck midway through from a penalty corner by Innocent Kullu and in the second half Ejaz Quershi enlarged the lead.

The results:

ONGC 3 (Sandeep Antil, Bikash, Jagwant Singh) beat Karnataka 1 (Deepak Bijwad).

Railways 2 (Innocent Kullu, Ejaz Quereshi) beat Mumbai 0.

Army 3 (Rajesh Kumar, Arumugam, Mundu) beat Punjab National Bank 1 (Bruno Lugan).

Sunday’s matches: Karnataka v BPCL (2-15 p.m.); Army v IOC (4 p.m.); Air India v IOB (5-45 p.m.).