South Central Railway, Secunderabad, sunk Indian Navy, Mumbai, 4-2 after the teams were tied 1-1 at the breather in a first round match in the 41st Bombay Gold Cup hockey tournament at the Mahindra stadium in Mumbai on Tuesday.
In the first match of the evening session, Western Railway, Mumbai, derailed another local outfit, Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers 6-1, after leading 5-0 at half-time.
Earlier, in the morning, EME Jalandhar drubbed BHA Colts, Mumbai, 5-0, after leading 3-0 at lemon time, while Jammu and Kashmir Police crushed Mumbai Port Trust 4-0 after sitting pretty at 2-0 in the first quarter.
South Central rallied well after conceding the lead to the Navy in the 11th minute. Centre-forward Manoj Lokhande sounded the board after latching on to a rebound which came off international Rajan Lakra's first attempt.
Six minutes later, the railwaymen equalised when their forward S Dung Dung scored off centre-forward Shyam Carriappa's pass.
In the 40th minute, the sailors again took the lead when Lakra converted a penalty-stroke, awarded after Navy defender A K Kiro's goalbound penalty-corner hit was stopped by Railway defender Manoj Singh with his foot.
Manoj Singh made amends when he converted his team's fourth penalty-corner in the 50th minute. The railway team again took the lead when centre-half J Ekka scored through a field goal.
With just two minutes to go for the final hooter, Railway defender Kuldip Xalxo rounded off the tally when he converted the team's sixth penalty-corner.
Western were on track against a depleted RCF. Their centre-forward, Shivendra Singh, pumped in three goals, two of them being from field play. He converted the second penalty-corner in the 13th minute, then followed it with a field goal in the 21st minute before rounding off the tally in the 58th minute with another field goal.
In between, K S B Shanta Kumar (25th), M Dhananjay (28th) and Gurmeet Singh (31st) chipped in with a goal each while RCF defender Solomon Alexander, who converted the sixth penalty-corner in the 56th minute, reduced the margin.
Tomorrow's fixtures: Air India vs Bhopal XI; Central Railway vs Karnataka XI; Tata Sports Club vs EME, Jalandhar; Corps of Signals vs CISF.
