CRPF whip Gujarat to stay in hunt

Central Reserve Police Force from Neemuch consolidated its position, with 5-0 hammering of lowly Gujarat in Pool 'D' of the Senior national hockey championship at the Mahindra stadium in Bombay on Thursday.

Forward V Memrum scored a brace of goals in 22nd and 41st minute after linkman Jolan Topno had opened the account in the eighth minute, and Parbhat Saini made it 2-0 with a superb reverse hit from the edge of the circle in the 18th minute.

Topno's handiwork led to Mukesh Kumar sounding the board for the last goal.

CRPF are currently second to Indian Oil in the standings, with Mumbai third. They clash with Mumbai on Sunday, in a match that is crucial for both, though CRPF have a better goal average.

On Thursday, CRPF toyed with one of the weakest state teams in the country and forced eight penalty-corners, but some fine saves by goalkeeper Dharmesh Patel prevented them from finishing with a bigger margin of victory.

In Hyderabad, Railways and Hyderabad played out a goalless draw in the final Group C league match of the tournament.

With Railways tallying 13 for to 4 against from their previous matches and Hyderabad having 12-3, the two teams were tied with a difference of nine goals each before going to the final match.

However, as the match ended in a goalless draw, Railways topped the group as they scored one goal more than Hyderabad.

The two teams qualified for the Super League phase to be held in Jammu.

In the other matches, ITBP defeated Bihar 3-1 while SAIL trounced Andhra 4-2.

Kulvinder Singh beat the Bihar custodian in the 16th minute to open the account for ITBP. Vijay Topno equalised in the 42nd minute. Ramkumar coverted a penalty-corner in the 61st minute and five minutes later Praveen Tiru scored to give ITBP a 3-1 victory.

A dingdong battle between SAIL and Andhra prevailed in the initial stages with Sunil Kiro scoring for SAIL in the 23rd minute and Davil Nobel equalising in the 36th minute. The next minute Sakvinder Singh increased SAIL's lead before Rajesh Babu drew parity immediately after.

Andhra, however, gave up the fight, after with John Minz and Rajpal Singh deftly scored in the 44th and 54th minutes for SAIL.