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Punjab Police moves into semifinals

KOLKATA: A brace of goals from Satwinder Singh in the later part of the game helped Punjab Police garner full points against East Coast Railways in a pool A quarterfinal league of the 113th all-India Beighton Cup hockey tournament at the SAI ground here on Monday.

The win, second consecutive one for the Punjab policemen, ensured it a semifinal berth and it would be up against Punjab and Sind Bank in the last league game on Monday to decide the group champion.

Punjab Sports Club made it to the semifinals from pool B leading with four points. The 2-2 draw it gained against Eastern Railway SA on Monday meant it would have to wait till Tuesday to decide the group leader.

Indian Oil and ERSA would play the final league and a victory would put the oilmen at the top and a place in the semifinals. That East Coast Railway held Punjab Police to a goalless draw till the half time. When Severan Barla put the E.C. Railway ahead with a 52nd minute penalty corner conversion, PP woke up to the reality and pumped in two goals through Satwinder in the 55th and 70th minutes, both being field goals.

Indian Oil thumped CESC 3-0 with goals from Inderjeet Singh (22nd), Jaswinder Singh (37th) and Didar Singh (50th).

The results:

Punjab Police 2 (Satwinder Singh (2) bt East Coast Railway 1 (Severan Barla); Punjab Sports Club 2 (M. Javed, Satpal Singh) drew with Eastern Railway (Shams Alam, Pramod Dhir) 2; Indian Oil 3 (Inderjeet Singh, Jaswinder Singh, Didar Singh) bt CESC 0. — Special Correspondent