Each and every match in the MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup 92nd all-India hockey tournament here on Saturday, had its fair share of excitement and was of top-notch quality, with the favourites emerging largely unscathed.
However, two teams did really well to enliven the proceedings and make quite a strong impact.
While Chennai Hockey Association (CHA), making its debut, did well to hold former champion Punjab & Sind Bank (PSB) 1-1 in Pool B, Central Secretariat, formed three years ago, played out an engrossing 3-3 draw with defending champion ONGC in Pool A.
On the other hand, it was a relatively easy outing for Indian Railways (Pool A) and IOC (B) as it posted wins over Indian Army (5-1) and Hockey Bengaluru (7-4) respectively.
Comprising just two Internationals in Ajitesh Rai and Pradeep Mor to a galaxy of Internationals (senior and junior), Secretariat matched the champion on all fronts.
Secretariat showed its fighting spirit as it came back every time it was in arrears. After Sumit Kumar pushed one into the net off a lovely lob from Gurjant Singh to give ONGC a 3-2 lead, Secretariat equalised within a space of 10 minutes.
Jayesh Yadav drilled one past the ’keeper Dhananjoy Meetei off a pass from Mohit Kumar, much to the joy of those in the bench including coach Olympian Rahul Singh.
It has to be admitted that ONGC had more circle penetrations and more penalty corners (7) to Secretariat’s (2), but the latter grabbed the few chances that came its way.
In fact, Secretariat had made its debut in the Murugappa tournament only last year and went on to lose all its league matches. This time, it could well be a bit different.
The results:
Pool A: Indian Railways 5 (Karan Pal Singh 6 & 69, Harsahib Singh 18, Kunwar Dilraj Singh 60, Pardeep Singh 66) bt Indian Army 1 (Sanjay Toppo 41).
ONGC 3 (Shilanand Lakra 27, Mandeep Antil 48, Sumit Kumar 50) drew with Central Secretariat 3 (Mohit Kumar 30, Pawan Kumar 33, Jayesh Jadhav 59).
Pool B: PSB 1 (Gaganpreet Singh 35+) drew with CHA 1 (Veera Thamizhan 50).
IOC 7 (Roshan Minz 2 & 24, Bharat Chikara 13 & 33, Gurjinder Singh 22 & 60, Arman Quereshi 38) bt Hockey Bengaluru 4 (Sandeep Kumar Singh 45, Pratap Lakra 51, M.G. Poonacha 63, Sharda Nand Tiwari 70).
