Tatas make it by a whisker

MUMBAI, Aug 12: Tatas entered the semi-final of the fifth veterans hockey tournament, organised by the Mumbai Veterans Hockey Association...

MUMBAI, Aug 12: Tatas entered the semi-final of the fifth veterans hockey tournament, organised by the Mumbai Veterans Hockey Association (MVHA), by the proverbial whisker at Mahindra Stadium today. Tatas lost their concluding league match to hosts MVHA 2-3, and finished equal on points (4) and goal difference (5) with Western Railway. But they pipped WR for the semi-final berth, having scored nine goals to WR’s eight. If Francis Fernandes had not scored Tatas second goal today, to narrow the margin of defeat, WR would have gone through on a better goal difference.

MVHA drew first blood, scoring through Benjamin Fernandes before BS Kuttappa equalised for Tatas. But Navyman D Bara got one back immediately to put MVHA 2-1 ahead. D Bara put MVHA 3-1 up, before Fernandes struck the crucial goal for Tatas.

Meanwhile, Tatas have lodged a protest against MVHA for having fielded 18 players in their three league matches, two more than the stipulated 16. But sources said that the protest was unlikely to be heeded,as the rules reportedly says that a team can field 16 players for each match, thereby implying that teams could include additional players for other matches.In another match, Olympian Marcellus Gomes proved his fitness and ball sense were still intact, as he spearheaded Mahindras’ 3-0 win over Customs.

Marcellus scored the first goal after combining well with Reginald Pereira.H Adrian and Nitin Ullal completed the Mahindras tally, as the Customs defence struggled to come to terms with age, aching muscles and the marauding Mahindras men.

In Saturday’s semi-finals, Tatas will meet Combined Banks, who topped Group B with an all-win record. The other semi-final will be contested by Pool A toppers MVHA and Mahindras.

Results

Pool A: Western Railway 6 (Chandrashekar 3, Hari Mohan, Sunil Kumar, S Shailendra) bt BoI 0; MVHA 3 (Benjamin Fernandes, D Bara 2) bt Tatas 2 (BS Kuttappa, Francis Fernandes); Pool B: Mahindras 3 (Marcellus Gomes, H Adrian, Nitin Ullal) bt Customs 0; RBI 2 (Reggie Gonsalves,Trevor Fernandes) bt Customs 1 (Hasanji Choudhary).