Punjab Police, who played in the city after almost a decade, made a winning start as they defeated Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited 1-0 in Pool A league game of the 13th PMC Bank-Guru Tegh Bahadur Gold Cup All India Hockey Tournament.
Sarvanjit Singh scored the winning goal when he converted a penalty stroke in the 29th minute.
Umpire Nishan Mohanty awarded Punjab Police the penalty stroke when BPCL defender Sukhman Singh blocked with his body Dupinder Deep Singh's goal-bound hit on the goal-line.
The Punjab Police encountered quite a strong challenge from a depleted BPCL outfit, who were without several of their regular players, who are currently in the Indian camp.
Earlier in the afternoon, skipper Deepak Thakur scored the opening two goals in leading Indian Oil to an overwhelming 7-1 win against the Central Railway in a Pool-B league match.
In the 11th minute, Thakur, at the top of the circle trapped Sukhjeet Singh's pass from the right and with a firm reverse hit sent the ball past Central goalkeeper Avadhut Solankar crashing to the boards.
He was again on target 13 minutes later when he deftly deflected home a long hit from the left to double Indian Oil's lead before Sunil Yadav converted a penalty stroke just before the half-time hooter to put Indian Oil in a comfortable position (3-0).
Indian Oil continued in the same vein on resumption and in the 37th minute, Roshan Minz scored the fourth off an assist from Thakur and six minutes later Sukhjeet with a lunging effort struck the fifth goal.
Harpreet Singh from another field effort got the sixth goal for the oil major in the 61st minute before Central managed to get on the scoreboard with Rajendra Pawar squeezing the ball home from an acute angle in the next minute.
Prabhjot Singh, another veteran Olympian, tapped home from close Indian Oil's seventh goal late in the match.
Results - Pool-A: Punjab Police 1 (Sarvanjit Singh -PS) beat BPCL 0.
Pool-B: Indian Oil 7 (Deepak Thakur 11th, 24th, Sunil Yadav 35+1st-PS, Roshan Minz 37th, Sukhjeet Singh 43rd, Harpreet Singh 61st, Prabhjot Singh 68th) beat Central Railway 1 (Rajendra Pawar 67th).
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