ONGC, Delhi, defeated Union Bank of India, Mumbai, 3-2 for their third successive win in Pool A and become the first team to qualify for the semi-finals of the 11th PMC Bank-Guru Tegh Bahadur Gold Cup All India Hockey Tournament here today.
Later, former champions Air India struck good form and soared to a 5-3 victory against Northern Railway in another Pool A all-Delhi game for their second win on the trot at the MHAL-Mahindra Stadium.
ONGC scored their first goal against Union Bank through Pramod Kumar in the 19th minute. But the younger Union Bank outfit made a strong reply and restored parity through Kiran Thokcham's field goal in the 25th minute and the teams went into the break level at 1-1.
After changing ends, ONGC regained the lead when former international and short corner specialist Diwakar Ram scored from a penalty corner in the 44th minute before another former India player Gurvinder Singh Chandi increased the lead to 3-1 from a field effort in the 57th minute.
Union Bank continued to fight gamely and reduced the deficit when Irshad Mirza found the net in the 68th minute.
In the Air India-Northern Railway contest, the railmen took an early lead through Manpreet Singh in the 23rd minute.
But Olympian Arjun Halappa scored two goals, on either side of the break, to put AI in the lead.
Former international Shivendra Singh converted a penalty stroke in the 48th minute and three minutes later scored again from a deflection before Olympian Vikram Pillay netted the fifth goal to seal the win.
In between those goals, Northern Railway scored twice through Sukhman Singh (49th minute) and Harsahib Singh (68th minute) to cut the margin of defeat.
