The Hindu : Sport / Hockey : BPCL upsets W. Railway

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 26, 2006

Sport

Sport - Hockey

BPCL upsets W. Railway

Special Correspondent

Mumbai: Sabu Varkey's thundering shot in the closing minutes brought Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) a second victory in the semifinal league and almost secured itself of a place in the title match of the 44th Bombay Gold Cup hockey tournament.

BPCL defeated Western Railway 2-1 to boost its tally to six points from two matches. In another semifinal league match, Namdhari XI suffered its second straight defeat and ruled itself out of contention for a place in the final. The Namdharis lost 4-0 to the Bangalore-based Army XI.

At the Mahindra Stadium here on Tuesday, Len Aiyappa put BPCL ahead seven minutes after the break with a rare dragflick conversion.

The defending champion, Western Railway, saw a stroke of luck coming its way when Jayesh Jadhav thrust his stick to divert a long pass from Manish Sahai. The match appeared to be heading towards a draw, when Varkey hit a power-packed carpet drive to beat the rival goalkeeper Suraj Kanta.

Full force

Army XI applied full force right through and was a deserving winner. It led 1-0 at half-time, captain Cyprind Aind finding the target off a rebound in the 16th minute.

Namdharis played with purpose in the second-half, made some good moves, but failed to finish. In the last 20 minutes, Army XI called the shots. S. Kumar Ekka increased the lead and in the end, Suresh Kumar wrapped up the match in style with two successful tries.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail