ONGC defeat Railways 4-3 in Murugappa Cup thriller
CHENNAI: Defending champion ONGC pulled off a dramatic 4-3 win over Indian Railways in a Pool A match of the All India MCC Murugappa Gold Cup Hockey Tournament here on Monday.
In another Pool A match, Indian Army defeated Central Secretariat 3-2.
Ranjan Kundulna drew first blood for Railways in the second minute but ONGC drew level seven minutes later as Gurjant Singh struck off a penalty corner.
The second half saw a flurry of goals as Railways went on the attack and scored twice in the 41st and 43rd minutes through Sayyad Niyaz Rahim and Harsahib Singh respectively.
The defending champion came roaring back and reduced the margin in the 45th minute through Gurjant Singh’s strike.
Mandeep Antil scored in the 67th minute as ONGC levelled scores before Gurjant scored his third goal of the game in the dying minutes to secure a win for ONGC in a thriller.
JUNIOR MEN’S SKEET TEAM TOPS QUALIFYING
CHANGWON, SOUTH KOREA: India’s junior men’s skeet team claimed the top spot after day one of qualifying to be in contention for gold but the country failed to fetch any medals or Olympic quota places at the ISSF World Championship here on Monday.
Gurnihal Singh Garcha shot 73 out of 75 to be in second place, Anantjeet Singh Naruka got 71 to lie 11th, while Ayush Rudraraju shot 70 to take up the individual 12th place on day one of the junior men’s skeet qualifiers. Their combined score of 214 put them in top spot in the team event, a point ahead of Cyprus.
However, Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Anish Bhanwala, 15, could not make the finals of the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol event, missing out by three points.
BATRA KNOCKED OUT OF TT NATIONALS
VIJAYAWADA: Top seed Manika Batra spent very little time at the table to bow out in the first round of the women’s singles at the National Ranking (South Zone) Table Tennis Championships at the DRM Municipal Indoor Hall on Monday.
The honour of sending the Commonwealth Games champion and mixed doubles bronze medallist of the Jakarta Asian Games back home very early went to 18-year-old Anannaya Basak. Anannaya won 11-4, 5-11, 11-9, 12-10, 11-8 in less than 40 minutes to make several eyebrows raise.
Meanwhile, fifth seed Krittwika Sinha Roy, seventh seed Ayhika Mukherjee and eighth seed Madhurika Patkar were also sent back by three other unseeded players.