Railways chug along on familiar track

With two of the four group league matches coming to an end, Karnataka and ONGC from group B, Tamil Nadu (group D) and Railways progressed to the quarterfinals of the 80th All India MCC Murugappa hockey tournament here today.

Karnataka plays Railways and Tamil Nadu takes on ONGC in the quarterfinals on Tuesday. Playing their second match of the tournament, Karnataka showed excellent cohesion as a team to score a 3-2 win over Air India and Tamil Nadu beat a fighting Railways 3-1. ONGC which finished their league campaign with a win and a loss, ended up as runners-up to Karnataka. Air India having lost both their matches and All India Customs and Central Excise, who drew 1-1 with Tamil Nadu earlier, were eliminated.

Karnataka captain AK Kavin scored the first two goals and Ignatius Tirkey netted the winner, while Birender Lakra and Roshan Tete scored for Air India. After a barren first half, TN went into the lead through Dinesh Nayak following their sixth penalty corner (39th minute) and Railways levelled through Chander Pal, who converted the resultant stroke awarded.