Central Railway, Mumbai, romped to a 4-2 victory over South Central Railway (SCR), Secunderabad, in a Pool-D league match on the opening day of the 49th Bombay Gold Cup Hockey Championship at the MHAL Stadium here today.
India discard Yuvraj Walmiki, Vinit Kamble, Deepak Lakra and Ajaz Qureshi scored a goal each for Central while S Niaz Rahim and Gurbhej Singh got the goals for the visiting side in the opening game of the tournament being organised by the Mumbai Hockey Association Limited.
A total of 12 teams, including leading outstation teams Air India, Indian Oil, Army XI, CAG, ONGC, South Central Railway, BPCL and Punjab National Bank - are taking part in the tournament along with four local challengers -- Western Railway, Indian Navy, Central Railway and Maharashtra State Police.
The final is scheduled on November 16.
In today's opener between two Railway outfits, the Mumbai side took off on the right track and in the very second minute forced a penalty corner, which they failed to convert. However, 10 minutes later they earned another penalty corner and this time Walmiki beat rival goalkeeper Sushant Tirkey from an indirect drill to put Central in front.
A minute later Vinit Kamble, after receiving a pass from the left, fired past Tirkey to give Central a 2-0 cushion. South Central staged a fightback but there were too many errors in their game and that proved to be their undoing. They, however, managed to reduce the deficit from one of their best combined moves in the match.
Ajit Kumar Pandey sprayed a measured pass to Mayank James on the right side of the goal which the latter trapped and switched across for Rahim to tap home in the 30th minute.
In the second half, Central Railway continued to hold sway and added the third through Lakra's penalty corner conversion in the 46th minute before Ajaz Qureshi capitalised on a defensive lapse to score the fourth and stretch the lead to 4-1 in the 52nd minute.
South Central did not give up the fight and scored their second goal when Gurbhej Singh found the mark from their fourth penalty corner in the 60th minute.
