Air India down Indian Navy; Punjab Police, BSF Jalandhar win

Mumbai, Apr 12 (UNI) Air India soared high today as they scored a facile 3-0 win over Indian Navy in a Pool G quaterfinal league match in the 45th All India Bombay Gold Cup hockey tournament being played at the Mahindra stadium here.

In the other matches of the India, Central Railway was derailed by Punjab Police 3-2 in a pool H match, while BSF Jalandhar routed Indian Overseas Bank 4-1 in a pool I match and South Central Railway blanked Indian Air Force 3-0 also in a pool I match.

Air India dominated the match against Indian Navy and conducted raids after raids on the rival citadel. Air India, however, had to wait till the 33rd minute before taking the lead when Len Aiyappa scored with a drag flick from their second penalty corner.

Earlier in the 22nd minute, Indian Navy had a golden chance to go ahead on a quick break following a penalty corner when from the left Ahsan ul-Haque passed to Ajay Kumar on top of the box who then relayed the ball to S B Gorde with only the keeper to beat, but he failed to trap the ball and Air India could breathe easy.

Seven minutes into the second half in the 42nd minute Bharat Kumar scored a brilliant field goal following a move down the right to put Air India 2-0 up.

Indian Navy then picked up their game and they received as many as four penalty corners in the space of 15 minutes but the Navymen could not convert any.

Air India after surviving this onslaught put the issue beyond doubt when in the 63rd minute a move initiated down the left hand side saw Ajmer Singh pass the ball to Dilbagh Singh on the right.

Dilbagh's cross was easily tapped in by Joga Singh to give Air India a facile 3-0 win.

In the match between Punjab Police and Central Railway, the former went up 2-0 by the 23rd minute with goals from Jugraj Singh in the 14th and Gagandeep Singh in the 23rd, both from penalty corners. Central Railway managed to reduce the margin in the 31st minute through Amit Kumar from their third penalty corner.

After the change of ends Punjab Police extended their lead to 3-1 in the 50th minute through a field goal by Satwinder Singh. Central Railway managed to pull one back in the dying moments of the game from their sixth penalty corner which was converted by Babar Khan, but this was too little too late.

South Central Railway proved too strong for Indian Air Force with Prabhakar Singh scoring a brace and Amit Srivas adding another to emerge 3-0 victors.

In the fourth match of the day, BSF Jalandhar routed Indian Overseas Bank 4-1 with goals Mandeep Singh, Ranjit Singh, Mukhjinder Singh and Gurpreet Singh, while B Arun Kumar managed to reduce the margin for Indian Overseas Bank.

UNI