MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup 2025: Indian Navy thrashes Malaysia junior team; IOC beats Karnataka
The Malaysian National junior team started well, but couldn’t sustain the momentum and was roundly thrashed by Indian Navy 4-1 in their opening Pool-B match of the 96th-MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup invitation hockey tournament at the SDAT-Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium here on Saturday.
Earlier, former champion Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) shut out a fighting Karnataka 4-3 in a gripping Pool-B tie.
In the first match of the day, defending champion Indian Railways played a sub-par game but managed to defeat Indian Army 2-1 in a lacklustre Pool-A tie.
The third and final match of the day between Malaysia and Navy witnessed heavy rain put a temporary halt as play resumed after an hour’s delay.
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The highlight of Malaysia-Navy’s match was the latter’s second goal by Navin Kerketta in the dying minutes of the third quarter.
The 19-year-old from Jharkhand raced from the half-line towards the circle and demonstrated a one-two move with Bhavin Kushalappa before pushing it home.
Trailing 1-3, IOC fought back in style to outlast a young Karnataka side, which impressed with its speed, guile and shooting prowess. With a few seconds remaining for the hooter, senior player Talwinder Singh converted the winner by unleashing a backhander from an acute angle from the right to give IOC the relief it desperately wanted.
The results:
Pool-A: Indian Railways 2 (Darshan Gawkar 27, Gursahibjit Singh 58) bt Indian Army 1 (Masih Das Herenj 28).
Pool-B: IOC 4 (Gurjinder Singh 6, V. R. Ragunath 44, Sudeep Chirmakoo 50, Talwinder Singh 60) bt Karnataka 3 (N. M. Surya 8, C. P. Livin 22, Chethan M Karisiri 34); Indian Navy 4 (Ashish Topno 8, Navin Kerketta 44, Sushil Dhanwar 47, K. Selvaraj 52) bt Malaysia National junior team 1 (Mohd. Harris Iskandar 2).