Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala, had to wait till the sudden death before getting the better of Central Railway, Mumbai, 6-5 in a pre-quarterfinal match at the DCB Aga Khan Hockey 2011.
Both teams were on level terms 3-3 in full-time and 5-5 after penalty strokes at the Bombay Gymkhana grass turf. Central’s Avesh Ansari’s feeble push was blocked by RCF custodian Jaswinder Singh, then Simrandeep Singh stepped up to convert the decisive stroke.
RCF were two goals up at half-time, down 2-3 with few minutes to go for full-time. A crucial penalty corner earned on the final whistle was followed by three more corners. Gurvinder’s direct shot off the fourth deflected in off a defender’s stick. Boosted by this success, the Kapurthala side held their nerve in the sudden death after both teams converted two out of five strokes in the tie-breaker.
BEG, Pune, were too powerful for RCF, Mumbai in the second tie played under floodlights, winning 5-3.
Results (pre-quarterfinals): RCF, Kapurthala 6 (Roop Singh, Kulbir Singh Sr, Gurwinder, Simrandeep Singh 2, Gagandeep) beat Central Railway 5 (Ajaz Qureshi, Ather Mirza, Navneet Swarnakar 2; Nilesh Mane). BEG, Pune 5 (Amol Bhosle, Rohit Dungdung, Ajay Kujur 2, Samsulender) beat RCF, Mumbai 2 (Mahesh Bagade, Suhas Patil).
