The Hindu: Railways on course to semifinals

Bengaluru HA blanks Punjab & Sind Bank

Defending champion Indian Railways and Bengaluru HA scripted convincing wins in Pool-A matches of the MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup all-India hockey tournament here on Monday.

Railways, with three wins from as many matches, is on course to qualify for the semifinals. On the other hand, Bengaluru has two wins from three matches.

While Railways walloped Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu (HUTN) 4-0, Bengaluru — despite not being to able to reprise its performance against BPCL the other day — blanked Punjab & Sind Bank 3-0. Railways shot ahead when Karan Pal Singh opened the account through a penalty stroke. Pardeep Singh increased the margin through a deflection off a cross from the right.

At the stroke of half-time, Pardeep produced a fine run on the right and passed the ball to Raju Pal, who tapped it home.

Railways dominated the second half too and made the opposition defence dance to its tunes.

Raju Pal made the most of the melee during the penalty corner conversion for the team’s fourth and final goal.

The margin would have been much higher had I.M. Arun Prasadh not been at goal.

The home side penalty corner conversions came under scanner as it failed to convert any of the four it got.

Bengaluru, which has set high standards in this edition, was nowhere near its best against PSB.

The forwardline appeared listless. But the victory will help it in the coming matches.

The results:

Pool-A: Bengaluru HA 3 (V.R. Raghunath 49, Sandeep Singh 60, Rajkumar Pal 66) bt Punjab & Sind Bank 0.

Indian Railways 4 (Karan Pal Singh 5, Pardeep Singh 10, Raju Pal 35 & 42) bt HUTN 0.