Chennai (Tamil Nadu)[India], August 31 : In a battle between two well-matched teams, Indian Oil Corporation Limited and Indian Railways played out an exciting 4-4 draw in Pool A in the 94th All-India MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup hockey tournament on Wednesday.
In another Pool A match today, Hockey Karnataka edged out Indian Navy 2-1. Meanwhile, in the next match Pool B, Punjab National Bank beat Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu 2-0. Railways finished its engagements in Pool A with 8 points - two wins and two draws while IOC moved to 7 points with a match in hand.
The IOC-Railways match started at a brisk pace with the former going ahead in just the second minute, thanks to a penalty corner conversion by Ankit Pal. No further goals were scored till the 30th minute though both sides pressed hard. In the 30th minute, Pratap Lakra equalised for the Railways, finding the net from a penalty corner. The next 17 minutes of play saw a flurry of goals as six goals came in that period. After IOC took the lead with a goal by Talwinder Singh in the 32nd minute, Railways came back hard, scoring three goals in quick time. Gursahibjit Singh (33rd minute), Yuvraj Walmiki (35th) and Atuldeep (44th) scored for Railways to secure a 4-2 lead with some 16 minutes left to play.
However, IOC reduced the margin in the 47th minute thanks to a goal by Gurjinder Singh and Roshan Minz (56th minute) scored a field goal to ensure a draw.
Hockey Karnataka came back after trailing by a goal at half-time to post a win, thanks to goals by Bharath Kurtakoti (47th minute, penalty corner) and Chelsea Medappa (54th minute). Sunny Malik scored for Indian Navy.
In the first match of the day, Sanjay beat the Tamil Nadu goalkeeper in the 2nd minute from a penalty corner and Ningombam Jenjen Singh (49th minute) scored as the home team bowed out of the tournament with a 0-2 loss.