Mumbai : Reigning champions Indian Oil produced a solid late charge scoring four goals in the final 12 minutes to quell the spirited challenge Central Railway and romp to a deserving 7-4 win in a keenly fought Pool-A match of the MHAL (Mumbai Hockey Association Limited) Super Division League 2015 and played at the MHAL-Mahindra Stadium, Churchgate on Wednesday evening.
This was the second successive win for Indian Oil who had drawn their opening game against Rhema Sports while this was the first defeat for Central who have won one and drawn the other two games.
The highlight of Indian Oil’s win was the slick finishing by forward Roshan Minz who recorded another hat-trick in the competition. He had earlier scored a hat-trick in the team’s 5-3 win against Indian Navy in the last match.
Bharat Chikara, Sunil Yadav, Deepak Thakur and Prabhjot Singh scored a goal each to complete the win for the oilmen. Central Railway’s dashing midfielder Affan Yusuf also got a hat-trick and Yuvraj Walmiki got one.
In another match of the same pool played under lights, Punjab & National Bank recovered well to hold Namdhari XI to a thrilling 3-3 draw. Namdhari started off strongly scoring twice through Harpreet Singh and Bhagat Singh inside the opening 10 minutes.
The bankmen reduced the deficit through Hardeep Singh’s goal in the 24th and then restored parity with skipper and penalty corner specialist Jitender Saroha converting from their second short corner in the 37th minute.
Namdhari once again regained the lead through Gagandeep Singh’s field effort in the 42nd minute but Punjab National Bank fought back and scored the equaliser through Saroha who found success from their third penalty corner in the 57th minute.
