Air India down TN XI via tie-breaker

Indian Railways outplayed Karnataka XI 6-2, but Air India needed the tie-breaker to edge out Tamil Nadu XI 6-5, after full-time and extra-time ended 1-1, to enter the semi-finals of the 79th MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup hockey tournament in Madras on Tuesday.

In another match, in the morning, fancied Indian Airlines struggled to get the better of Tamil Nadu Colts 3-2 to make it to the last eight along with Punab and Sind Bank, IHF Juniors and Bharat Petroleum.

The youthful Tamil Nadu team, led by international Prabhakar and R Vimalanathan up front and T Dixon in defence, did well to keep the marauding Air India attack of Gavin Ferreira, Rajesh Chauhan and Kishore Kumar at bay for most of the match but came a cropper in the penalty-strokes' duel.

Air India snatched the lead in the 13th minute though Rajesh Chauhan while S Vinodh restored parity for Tamil Nadu.

With no goal coming in extra-time, the tie-breaker was resorted to. Nagendran put Tamil Nadu ahead (1-0) but Air India equalised through Kishore Kumar (1-1). Gautham muffed his shot for TN after which Air India went up 2-1 through Surinder Kundu. However, Tamil Nadu levelled through Govindaraj (2-2). Ajay Kumar made it 3-2 for Air India but TN caught up again with Padmarajan converting his shot (3-3). Roshan Tete made it 4-3 for Air India before Radhakrishnan could level scores (4-4) for TN of the team's last stroke. But Sonu converted Air India's last stroke to clinch victory.

In the earlier match, Indian Railways rode on a brilliant hat-trick by Chander Pal to rout Karnataka XI 6-2 and enter the semi-finals.

Railways were always in command of the proceedings, with their forwards Chander Pal, Hamsher Khan and Mukhtiar Singh tormenting the brittle Karnataka defence.

Mukhtiar opened the account in the 28th minute, after which Chander Pal struck in the 32nd and 33rd minutes to put Railways 3-0 up by half-time.

Karnataka pulled one back on resumption through Anup Anthony before Chander Pal completed his hat-trick (4-1) by finishing off a splendid pass from Prinzev Singh.

Chander Pal went on to increase his personal tally to four goals before Iqbal Singh could complete the rout.

Anthony scored again in the last minute to reduce the margin further (2-6) for Karnataka.

In another match, Tamil Nadu Colts nearly grounded Indian Airlines after drawing level twice from deficits of 0-1 and 1-2. However, the oft-crowned national champions went on to win 3-2 and qualify for the quarter-finals from Group B, behind Punjab and Sind Bank.

Airlines took the lead in the sixth minute through Virender Sinha, but the Colts, who were unlucky to have lost to Bharat Petroleum on Monday, equalised in the 30th minute through Palanivel Nathan, who converted a penalty-corner.

Level 1-1 at half-time, Airlines regained the lead in the 44th minute through India captain Mukesh Kumar only to see Alfred Assin draw level for the Colts again.

Former India medio Mohammad Riaz clinched the issue for Airlines in the 57th minute.