Defending champion IOC scraped to a 2-1 win over Mumbai in an unimaginative Pool A contest while National champion Indian Railways had to really dig deep to hold SAIL 3-3 in a Pool B tie in the 89th all-India MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup hockey tournament here on Monday.
While, the draw was certainly a setback for Railways, one wondered whether this was the same SAIL team, which was drubbed 5-0 by IOB the other day. Both teams played an uninspiring first half, which saw them score a goal each.
SAIL picked up steam after scoring its second. It was a wonderful piece of co-ordination and intent. Sensing that Bheem Yadav was running at full speed from the right, Ashok Lakra put the stick down and set it up for the former to slot home.
SAIL surprised Railways again with its third goal. In a counter-attack, Meet Singh passed it to Bheem Yadav at the circle, who in turn gave it to Francis Toppo, who pushed it home in a melee with only two minutes remaining for the hooter.
Taken aback, Railways came hard at SAIL forcing two penalty corners at the death. Amit Rohi Das silenced the SAIL camp with a neatly executed drag flick that found the middle of the net. With four points from three matches, Railways is still unsure of qualifying for the knockout phase.
It is crystal clear that IOC relies too much on Deepak Thakur, and that could spell trouble for the team later on.
On Monday, it struggled against a novice like Mumbai. Miss-passes, poor co-ordination and elementary errors marked its play throughout the match.
After Deepak opened the account for IOC, Mumbai didn’t panic and attacked from the wings at regular intervals. In one such raid, Victo Singh equalised with a stunning backhander from the left off a difficult angle that took the defence and goalkeeper Baljith Singh by surprise.
Dider Singh, who is also acting as the team’s coach, bailed IOC out with a perfect strike off a penalty corner. IOC has seven points from three matches, and is most likely to qualify from its Pool.
The results: Pool A: IOC 2 (Deepak Thakur 5, Dider Singh 29) bt Mumbai 1 (Victo Singh 26). Pool B: Indian Railways 3 (Sanjay Bir 8, Niyaz 44, Amit Rohi Das 70+) drew with SAIL 3 (R. Sandeep 3, Bheem Yadav 51, Francis Toppo 68).
