Murugappa Gold Cup: Railways, Army through to semifinal
Defending champion Indian Railways shut BPCL out of the 95th MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup All-India hockey tournament here on Wednesday.
With the 5-4 win over the former champion, Railways qualified for the semifinals with a match to spare and will face Tamil Nadu in its last Pool A match on Thursday.
The other team from Pool A to advance is the Army, which secured its spot after a 2-1 victory over Maharashtra.
READ | MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup: IOC books semifinal berth after defeating Odisha 3-1; Army beats Tamil Nadu
There was hardly a dull moment in the tie between Railways and BPCL.
Railways led 4-2 going into the fourth quarter, but BPCL refused to back down, earning three consecutive penalty corners at the start of the quarter. Railways, however, held firm.
BPCL continued to attack with gusto and equalised within three minutes through a brace from former International Devender Walmiki. Railways had the last laugh when Darshan Gawkar converted.
The semifinalists:
Pool-A: Railways & Army; Pool-B: IOC & Odisha.
The results:
Pool A: Indian Army 2 (Cyril Lugun 13, Akshay Dubey 41) bt Maharashtra 1 (Venkatesh Kenche 46).
Indian Railways 5 (Joginder Singh 9 & 35, Parampreet Singh 13, Gursahibjit Singh 28, Darshan Gawkar 58) bt BPCL 4 (Devindar Walmiki 3, 57 & 54, Rajinder Singh 14).
B: Karnataka 6 (Ganesh Majji 4 & 19, Chelsea Madappa 22 & 30, Deekshith 11 & 35) bt Central Secretariat 1 (Karthi Selvam 47).