CAG XI, Airmen in Phase II
CAG XI and Indian Air Force filled the last two slots in the main draw of the Torex 53rd Nehru senior hockey tournament at Shivaji Stadium in the capital on Thursday.
CAG XI edged past Indian Navy in the sudden death 8-7 after regulation play ended 1-1 in the knockout round while IAF pipped South Central Railway 4-3.
In the first match, Jugraj Singh (8th minute) drew first blood for Navy who kept the lead intact till first half.
After the break, Imran Khan struck the equaliser within three minutes, taking the match to the shoot-out, in which both teams had two goals each to further push the match to the sudden death where CAG XI had the upper hand.
Nithin Timmaiah, Azam Baig, man of the match Gurpartap Singh, Sidhart Shankar were on target for the winners while Rana Pratap, Ved Prakash, Amit Goswami Pawan Rajbhar and Sanjit Toppo scored for the Indian Navy.
Later, Gurbhej Singh put South Central Raiways ahead in the fourth minute through penalty corner before man of the match Lovedeep Singh (14th) pulled out a equaliser.
Davinder Singh (27th) and Lovedeep pumped in a goal each in a span of four minutes to give Air Force a 3-1 cushion.
SCRs’ response came through Sesha Gowda, who struck in the last minute of the first half to reduce the margin.
After changing ends, Manish (40th) found back of the net in favour of the Airmen to keep up the lead. Lovepreet Singh (49th) sounded the board to put pressure on Air Force but they held on to the lead to emerge winners.