Mumbai rally to hold FCI

The match between Mumbai and FCI was an interesting affair as both the teams played their hearts out. But Mumbai took lead through a penalty stroke.

Following a corner, the ball hit one of the FCI’s defender leg and this resultant in a stroke. M K Prakash put former champion Mumbai 1-0 in the 22 minute.

Three minutes later Navbir Singh following a cross from Koro pushed the ball into the Mumbai’s goal for the equaliser (1-1) for FCI.

Five minutes before breather, Navbir Singh scored the second goal for FCI (2-1) when he deflected the ball from a square pass from right winger B Lakra.

After the break Mumbai came back with renewed vigour but had to wait till the 44 minutes of the match to score the equaliser goal which came from the stick of young debutant Vijay Alphonso.

In another match, Orissa rallied to overcome Maharashtra at 2-1 after trailing 0-1 at half-time.

Indian Airlines win: Title aspirants Indian Airlines (IA) scored a facile 7-1 victory over Haryana in their first outing today.

Another strong contenders for the title, Punjab, chakled out their second victory in Group A by defeating Andhra 7-0 in the morning.

With an array of internationals, IA, led by Olympian Mukesh Kumar, who was instrumental in feeding his forwards, outplayed their inexperienced rivals.

Another international, Mohammed Riaz, drew first blood when he smartly scooped home a grounder from Mukesh at the top of the circle.

Soon after, Mukesh was once again in the limelight when he dribbled past a couple of defenders and scooped the ball to centre-forward Brojen Singh.

Brojen, who moved into the circle quickly trapped the ball well before finding the target. In the very next minute left-half Samir Dad scored the third goal off a solo effort.

The fourth came through a penalty corner, converted by defender Dilip Tirkey and the Airmen led 4-0 at half-time.

Immediately after resumption, Mukesh sent in yet another grounder to Samir Dad on the top of the circle. Samir’s powerful shot deflected off Haryana defender Mohammed Fahad straight to an unmarked Altaf-Ur-Rehman who made no mistake.

In the 40th minute, IA were awarded a stroke when Haryana custodian Sarwan Kumar knocked down IA forward Shakeel Ahmed when the latter was poised to score. Riaz converted.

The seventh goal came in the 47th minute when Brojen Singh created an opening for Lazarus Barla, who sounded the board.

Mohammed Fahad scored the consolation goal for Haryana in the dying minutes.

Punjab, who pounded Rajasthan 18-0 yesterday, kept their winning steak but the margin of victory against Andhra was only 7-0, after leading 5-0 at half-time.

If it was Sarabjit Singh who was the hero of Punjab’s win against Rajasthan, today it was the nippy forward Baljit Singh, who scored three goals. Gurusewak Singh, Jasdev Singh, Sarabjit Singh, and Surjit Singh scored accounted for the other four goals.

Results

Group A: Punjab 7 (Baljit Singh 3, Gurusewak Singh, Jasdev Singh, Sarabjit Singh, Surjit Singh) bt Andhra 0.

Group B: Indian Postal 2 (Nirmal Singh, Siraj-Ul-Haq) bt Hyderabad 1 (N Suresh); CISF 1 (GV Xaxa) bt Gujarat 0.

Group C: Mumbai 2 (MK Prakash, Vijay Alphonso) drew FCI 2 (Navbir Singh 2).

Group D: Orissa 2 (S Kumar Barla 2) bt Maharashtra 1 (Sanjay Pollaya); Indian Airlines 7 (M Riaz 2, Brojen Singh, Samir Dad, Dilip Tirkey, Altaf-Ur-Rehman, Lazarus Barla) bt Haryana 1 (M Fahad).

Tomorrow’s fixtures (Timing in bracket): (0630) Indian Railways vs Rajasthan, (0830) BSF vs Vidharba, (1030) Bihar vs Andhra, (1230) J&K vs Indian Airlines, (1430) UP vs Nagaland, (1630) Haryana vs Maharashtra.