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MP Academy defeated Central Railway 3-2 in a women’s league match of the 2nd Bengaluru Cup hockey tournament at the Bangalore Hockey Stadium here on Tuesday.
MP Academy scored two goals in the first five minutes through skipper Shivani Singh (2nd min) and Manmeet Kaur (5th min) and struck the match-winner through R Ramnugaihzuali in the 65th minute. Central Railway rallied to make it 2-0 in the second half with field goals from Ponnamma Mallamada in the 43rd minute and Kavita Vidyarthi in the 53rd minute.
Shivani surprised the rival defence with a quick goal to hoist the lead for MP Academy in the 2nd minute and within three minutes the MP girls earned their first penalty corner. Despite a bad stop Vineeta pushed the ball to the left and Manmeet Kaur sent a reverse hit to sound the boards (2-0).
After trailing 2-0 for better part of the game, Central Railways pulled one back with Ponnamma scoring off a cross from Kavita Vidyarthi in in the 43rd minute. Ten minutes later Kavita scored one herself after former India star and skipper Soundary Yendala dribbled down the right backline dodging past two defenders and gave a short reverse pass to Kavita, who tapped into the goalmouth.
The equaliser brought some energy into the game but MP Academy sealed the issue with a match-winner five minutes from time with a goal from Ramnugaihzuali following a move from the left flank.
Army XI rallied brilliantly to hold defending champions Indian Oil Corporation Limited to a 3-3 draw in the men’s league matches of the 2nd Bengaluru Cup hockey tournament at the Bangalore Hockey Stadium turf here on Tuesday.
Yuvaraj Walmiki (16th minute), Inderjit Singh (24th min) and Prabhjot Singh (50th min) scored for IOCL while Biraj Ekka (14th min), Vishwa Thakur (54th min) and Chandan Aind (63rd min) were successful for Army XI.
Army XI drew the first blood in the 14th minute with a field goal from Biraj Ekka but the experienced IOCL drew parity in the very next minute when their striker Yuvaraj Walmiki struck a field goal. IOCL took the lead in the 24th minute through skipper Inderjit Singh in the 24th minute to take the break at 2-1.
After the cross-over, Oilmen increased the lead in the 50th minute with veteran Prabhjot Singh making it 3-1 scoring off a long diagonal cross from Yuvraj.
Thereafter, Army XI came into their own to put pressure on the rivals and reduced the margin when Biraj Ekka set it up for nicely for Vishwa Thakur, who banged into the boards (2-3). With seven minutes to go, Army XI raised visions of an upset, making it 3-3 when Chandan Aind struck the equaliser with a diving deflection in the 63rd minute and Army XI earned a last-minute short corner too but IOCL defended well to share a point each.
