Sunil Eka hits Suriya Prakash with hockey stick over a controversial yellow card.
ONGC upset defending champions Army XI 4-1 in a Pool ‘A’ match marred by the violence of Sunil Eka, who was sent off with a red card, in the MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup hockey tournament at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium here on Sunday.
ONGC created the best of opportunities and ran up a 3-0 lead by half time. But a yellow card to Mukesh Kumar in the 43rd minute resulted in a fracas between the Army players and umpire RS Suriya Prakash.
In the heat of the moment, Eka advanced in a menacing manner and assaulted Suriya Prakash with his stick. The umpire was left with a bleeding head, and the wound required four stitches. In fact, the umpire had shown a green card to Preetinder of ONGC and yellow to Mukesh Kumar (who had earlier received a green card). With the new green card rule in vogue, players will have to sit out for two minutes.
“Eka is out of the next match for sure, whether he will play in the rest of the tournament or not will be decided after receiving the umpires’ report,” tournament officials said after the match.
Earlier, Tryon opened the account for ONGC in the 7th minute by slotting home following a goal mouth scramble. Sandeep Antil increased the tally in the 31st minute as Army goalkeeper PT Rao had a torrid time under the bar.
Penalty corner specialist Diwakar Ram tripled the lead in the 32nd minute off a penalty stroke. The Army players were a little agitated at every turn and continued to argue with the umpires culminating in the ugly incident.
Reduced to 10 men in the second half, Army XI began to cobble up better moves and Eliazer Lakra reduced the margin in the 62nd minute. Jagwant Singh scored a field goal in the 67th minute to complete ONGC’s tally.
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