CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu and the National Centre of Excellence(NCOE), Bhopal engaged in a high-scoring 4-4 draw in a Pool A fixture at the MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup hockey tournament played at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium on Sunday.
With a draw and a win so far in the tournament, TN began well and went ahead in just the third minute when Patras Tirkey scored home from a penalty corner. Somanna B P increased the lead in the 15th minute with a penalty stroke. NCOE went from 0-2 down to lead 3-2 at half time. Mohammad Zaid Khan converted a penalty corner in the 20th minute before Manjeet scored in the 26th minute with a field goal to level at 2-2. Manish Sahani scored off a penalty corner in the 29th minute.
In the second half, Somanna scored through a penalty corner at the 41st minute equalizing the score, before Balachandar increased the lead for TN in the 44th. NCOE did not settle, as Amit Yadav of SAI NCOE scored the final goal in the 47th minute.
In a Pool B fixture, Indian Navy rode on a hat-trick by Sushil Dhanwar, who scored three penalty corners to set up a 4-2 win for Indian Navy against Karnataka. Dhanwar opened the tally with a penalty corner conversion in the third minute. After Karnataka pulled level courtesy of Bharath Mahalingappa, Dhanwar added two goals from the penalty corner, in the 20th and 34th minute. Prashanth of Indian Navy scored in the 53rd minute to increase the lead again securing the victory 4-2.
In the final match of the day, The Malaysia junior national team shrugged off Saturday's loss to edge out Central Board of Direct Taxes 4-3 with Azimuddin Shakir scoring a brace.
Results: Pool A: TN 4 (P Tirkey 3', Somanna BP 15' 41', Balachandar 44') drew with NCOE, Bhopal 4 (Mohd Z Khan 20' Manjeet 26', M Sahani 29'; A Yadav 47') Pool B: Indian Navy 4 (S Dhanwar 3', 20' & 34', Prashanth 53') bt Karnataka 2 (Bhrath Mahalingppa 12', G. Vishwas 35'); Malaysia 4 (M D Aiman 20', M H' Iskandar 41, S' Azimuddin 54', 60') bt CBDT 3 (P Gowda 24', Pardeep Singh M 27', VChoudhary 57').
Manikandan shines
Manikandan's four-fer came in handy for RR Donnelley to defeat Ashok Leyland by three runs in the semifinals of the GR Kuppuswamy memorial tournament.
Brief scores: YSCA 96 all out in 26.1 ovs (Naveen Kumar 25, B Sriram 25, Abhinand 4/8) lost to Apollo Tyres 98/1 in 9.5 ovs ( Balakrishnan 35 n.o., Abinandhan 34 n.o.) RR Donnelley 165 all out in 24.2 ovs (TG Sudarshan 36, Manikandan 34, Pushparaj 4/32) bt Ashok Leyland 162 all out in 29.4 ovs (Moin 61, Manikandan 4/37)
