Veterans show their skills, Olympic X1 emerge winners

Betul: In a match between veteran hockey players, Olympic XI trounced World Cup XI by 7-2 goals last night at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium here.

The match was organised by a local Social and Cultural Association named “Pratidhwani” to promote hockey in which players who helped India to clinch 1975 Hockey World Cup and 1980 Moscow Olympic took part.

Padmashri and Arjun awardee Dhanraj Pillai of Olympic XI, who scored as many as three goals in the fixture, was declared man-of-the-match.

Govinda hit the first goal of the match in the 10th minute while Ashok Dhyanchand scored second goal for World Cup XI.

After this, Olympic XI’s Dhanraj Pillai struck three goals in 20th, 45th and 51st minutes forcing opponent team to play defensive game.

Besides Pillai, four more goals were scored by Olympic XI — Sameer Daad (32nd minute), Deepak James (35th minute) and Altaf-ur-Rehman (58th and 61st minutes) and won the match by 7-2.