Mumbai : Opportunistic goal-scorer Aiyappa P.R. exhibited excellent scoring touch by striking five goals, including three in quick succession, to inspire fancied Air India to a convincing 9-0 victory against a disjointed SAI (Sports Authority of India) in a Pool-B match of the MHAL (Mumbai Hockey Association Limited) Super Division League 2015 and played at the MHAL-Mahindra Stadium, Churchgate on Sunday afternoon.
Birendra Lakra, Arjun Halappa, Jogga Singh and Prithvi Raj added one each to complete the margin of tally for the airmen who have now recorded their second win from as many games.
Earlier, in another Pool-B match played in the morning, Central Secretariat managed to overcome a fighting Union Bank of India by a close 4-2 margin after leading 3-1 at half-time. The Secretariat side started positively and by the 10th minute scored twice through Pradhan Somanna in the 8th minute and Gunasekar in the next minute before Ashishek Singh got the third seven minutes later.
The spirited Union Bank outfit reduced the deficit with Khalid Aziz getting the first goal in the 17th minute and Kiran Thockchum the second in the 39th minute. Somanna scored his second goal of the match and an insurance goal for Secretariat in the 68 minute to secure the win, their second on the trot. In another match of the same pool, ONGC (Oil & Natural Gas Corporation) carved out a hard-fought 4-2 win against BEG (Bombay Engineering Group to register their second win in the pool. Gurvinder Singh Chandi, Jagwant Singh, Tyron Pereira and M. Amit were on target for ONGC while BEG scored through Jerong Gurung and Rajendra Ekka.
In the final game of the day, played under floodlight, Central Railway came out with a steady performance to tame Rhema Sports by a 4-2 margin in Pool-A. Yuvraj Walmiki, Mohd. Nizamuddin, Narad Bahadur and Affan Yusuf combined effectively to score one goal each for Central Railway, while Rhema Sports managed to reduce the margin of defeat with goals from Sanjay Bir and Inderjit Singh.
Vinod Pillay (Central Secretariat), Aiyappa P.R. (Air India), Abung Singh (BEG), and Yuvraj Walmiki (Central Railway) won the ‘Man-of-the-match’ awards in their respective matches and all four received a cash award of Rs 1,000 each.
