BSF survive odds to sink Navy

The BSF players, too, appealed to the umpire to reverse his decision but their pleas fell on deaf ears. The Jalandhar team then refused to continue play, but after a nine-minute stoppage finally took up the field once again.

The BSF team must be extremely happy that they took the decision to resume play, for they not only rallied to overcame the 0-2 deficit with two goals following penalty-corner hits by Christopher Ekka and Mangru Tirkey, but also won the tie-breaker duel and earned a quarter-final meeting with Indian Airlines. Navy had taken the lead in the 15th minute through Amim-ul-Haque who scored from close after spearhead Manoj Lokhande had done the spadework. Lokhande was then credited with the controversial second Navy goal, which came in the fifth minute of the second-half.

In the tie-breaker, two Navy goals, one each by S Choudhary and S Gurde, were disallowed for ‘stepping infringement’. Those who scored for Navy were HS Bhist, MPJ Manova and Manoj Lokhande. Shinu Merenz, Sushil Kumar, W Bismobir Singh and captain Kuljinder Singh made no mistake for BSF. Merinus Lakra’s push was saved by substitute Navy goalkeeper Suresh Kumar.

EASY FOR CUSTOMS: Mumbai Customs, who were up by a goal at the breather, trounced Southern Railway 4-0 and earned a pre-quarter-final meeting with Uttar Pradesh XI. Stanley Fernandes (2), Savio Naik and Mujeeb Qazi were the goal-getters for Customs.

Today’s matches: 2 pm Central Railway vs SAIL; 4 pm Army XI vs Indian Air Force.