The Hindu : Sport / Hockey : Facile win for Punjab and Sind Bank

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Sport - Hockey

Facile win for Punjab and Sind Bank

Special Correspondent

GURGAON: Defending champion Punjab and Sind Bank warmed up with a 4-1 victory over Western Railway after leading 2-0 at the interval in a pool ‘A’ quarterfinal league match of the Jindal Steel 45th Nehru hockey tournament at the Nehru Stadium here on Thursday.

Strikes by Ranjodh Singh and Mandeep Singh in the first seven minutes put the bank team in command. Western Railway pulled one back through Manish Saini in the 56th minute.

However, Punjab and Sind Bank responded very well with goals in the 63rd and 68th minutes through Kulwinder Singh and Sarvanjit Singh respectively. Both the teams forced four penalty corners each, but did not score any of their goals through the set piece drills.

Meeting the challenge

In another match in the same group, India Colts handled the challenge from the Pakistan team with competence to emerge a 3-1 victor against Heroes Club, after having led 2-1 at the interval.

Diwakar Ram converted two penalty corners to play a decisive role in the team’s triumph after India Colts had opened its account through Jai Karan in the fourth minute.

Atif Baig scored the only goal for the Pakistan club two minutes before halftime.

In pool ‘B’, last year’s runner-up Bharat Petroleum cruised to a 5-1 victory over the other foreign team in the fray, the President’s XI, Bangladesh, after leading 2-0 at the breather.

Pundlik Bellary (2), Tushar Khandekar (2) and Amar Aiyamma scored the goals for Bharat Petroleum.

Rimon Kumar Ghosh reduced the margin for the visiting side.

Meanwhile, the organisers shuffled the groupings to ensure that the two foreign teams stayed in different pools.

The groups:

Pool A: Punjab and Sind Bank, Heroes Club, Pakistan; India Colts and Western Railway.