Mumbai go down fighting to I-A

With Sumesh and Prakash combining well to feed their forwards, Mumbai had the champions, Airlines, at their wit’s end. But, when it came to scoring it was the latter who excelled.

Twelve minutes into the match, Ravi Nayakar, patrolling in the rival half with no defender around, failed to make use of an excellent pass from Prakash from left, as he took a bit too long time to allow the custodian Subbaiah to get into position before hitting it straight to him.

Six minutes later, Airlines got their first goal when they forced a penalty corner. The Mumbai goalie Jude Menezes, baffled by Rajnish Mishra’s dummy hit, was out-positioned and was left stranded as Altaf-ur-Rehman’s scoop went past him and into the top left of the goal.

Though substitute Adolf Calaco equalised with a spectacular reverse-flick just before the interval, International Atif Idris set up the second goal for Airlines when he sent in a measured cross to the agile Sameer Dad who gleefully tapped it in, four minutes into the second half. Brojen Singh, who was well marked for most part of the match, cut loose in the 58th minute as he found the target after dodging past a couple of defenders. Calaco scored his second a minute from the end to reduce the margin.

Hyderabad win: Lugun, Rajendar, Ajay Bharathi scored for Hyderabad while Shanmugam equalised after the hosts had taken the lead in the 18th minute.

Punjab beat Services: National Games champions Punjab, packed WITH internationals, failed to produce the stuff expected of them against the Services in group B. The lone goal, after breather, came off a stroke converted by Baljit Singh Dhillon in the 63rd minute.

Tamil Nadu score: In the last match of the day, Tamil Nadu scored through Thirumavalavan and Senthil in their 2-0 victory.