HOCKEY

INTER-REGIONAL TOURNEY

South too good for Central

Bangalore: South Zone pumped in five first-half goals to drub Central 7-2 in the Sports Authority of India all-India inter-regional hockey tournament for senior boys at the KSHA Stadium here on Monday.

The encounter started with a bang as the first 10 minutes saw four goals, three in favour of South. Nithin
Thimmaiah (1st), Vinod Rayer V (7th) and Sampath Kumar (10th, PC) set the ball rolling for South while Central netted an early equaliser through Abhishek Srivastava (5th).

Central fought back when Badshah Alam converted a penalty corner (21st) but Bangalore made further inroads before the breather with Aiyappa MB, coming in as a substitute, scoring with his first touch of the match (27th) and Rayer completing his double two minutes later to make it 5-2.

After an intensely fought first session, Central ran out of steam as South ran their rivals haggard with a splendid all-round show.

South skipper Nilesh KA piled up Central’s miseries (35th) to gain a four-goal cushion. South were reduced to 10 men when Nilesh was yellow-carded but Central couldn’t use that to their advantage.
Vineeth Michael rounded off the scoring for South nine minutes from time.

Earlier, in a see-saw opening encounter, East Zone rallied to edge out West Zone 2-1.