Railways, ONGC start with big wins in Murugappa Gold Cup

Indian Railways began defence of its title in the 91st All-India MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup hockey tournament, with a crushing 6-2 win over Bengaluru Hockey in a Pool "A" match here today.

In the second game of the day, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation brought Hockey Odisha crashing down to earth after their draw against Army XI yesterday, by outclassing it 7-1.

In another Pool "B" encounter, Punjab & Sind Bank defeated a strong Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) 1-0 thanks to a 65th minute goal from Santa Singh.

The Railways-Bengaluru Hockey match saw the former jump into an early lead as Ajmer Singh scored in the fourth minute which was neutralised by Olympian V R Raghunath's penalty corner in the 18th minute.

The Railways then took control and slotted in five more goals before the Bengaluru team reduced the margin in the final stages. The other goal-scorers were Raju Paul, Ranjan Aiyappa (two goals), Manpreet Singh Chahal and Kunjan Topno.

In the next match, Hockey Odisha surprised ONGC by scoring in the fourth minute through Cyril Lugun's penalty corner conversion.

However, ONGC hit back strongly and scored in the 7th and 9th minute through Diwakar Ram, who added to his tally by converting a penalty corner in the 60th minute.

Machaiah, Nilam Xess, with a brace and Jagwant Singh added to the Odisha outfit's woes.

In the final match of the day, BPCL, after a hard-fought 2-0 win over Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu yesterday, were defeated by bankmen from Punjab.

Results: Indian Railways 6 (Ajmer Singh 4th minute, Raju Paul 32, Ranjan Aiyappa 49, 62, Manpreet Singh Chahal 56, Kunjan Topno 59) beat Hockey Bengaluru 2 (V R Raghunath 18, Nilesh Ka 68).

ONGC 7 (Diwakar Ram 7, 9, 60, Machaiah 38, Nilesh Xess 65, 70, Jagwant Singh 69) beat Hockey Odisha 1 (Cyril Lugun 4).

Punjab & Sind Bank 1 (Santa Singh 65) beat BPCL 0.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)