Amar Aiyamma nets hat-trick

BANGALORE: A fine hat-trick by Amar Aiyamma guided BPCL to a 3-1 win over Indian Railways in the first pool B game of the Chief Minister Yeddyurappa Cup, at the KSHA stadium here on Sunday.

Two of Aiyamma=92s goals were results of well-executed penalty corner conversions. The first half belonged entirely to BPCL, which took 17 minutes to open the account.

Off a penalty corner, the Railways keeper parried the ball only for it to fall into the path of Aiyamma, who slotted it home from two yards. The second goal came on 31 minutes, and was a thing of beauty.

Driving down the right flank, William Xalxo crossed the ball in and Aiyamma casually flicked it in, with his back to goal.

The scoreboard read 2-0 at half-time and Railways played much better in the second half, showing more intent to get forward than they did in the first. Their pressure paid off early, with Deepak Ekka scoring, but they conceded again only three minutes later.

Aiyamma sealed his hat-trick, after another good penalty corner routine, and the game was effectively over.

The result:

BPCL 3 (Amar Aiyamma 17, 31, 51) bt Indian Railways 1 (Deepak Ekka 48).

Saturday’s results : Army XI bt DYSS 4-1 ; IOCL bt ONGC 3-1 .— Sports Reporter