RCF defeat Central Railway 3-2

Rail Coach Factory (RCF), Kapurthala defeated Central Railway, Mumbai 3-2 in a penalty shootout after a dramatic 3-3 finish in their pre-quarterfinal in the DCB Aga Khan hockey tournament at the Bombay Gymkhana on Wednesday. 

Both sides got off the blocks early in the game and managed a number of circle penetrations. RCF drew first blood in the game, when Roop Singh finished an intricate passing move in the 19th minute.

The railmen attempted a quick reply with long cross ball to Deepak Lakra on the left flank, but he only managed a weak push towards the goal after the beating the defence line, which was easily dealt by the RCF ‘keeper and captain Jaswinder Singh.

The side from Punjab doubled their lead when Gurwinder delivered a pinpoint pass to Kulbir Singh Sr, who was just a foot away from the goal-line and had to just tap the ball into an open goal.

Central Railway kept the pressure on despite being two goals down relatively early in the game and they were rewarded on the half-an-hour mark when Ajaz Qureshi, who found himself on the end of a defence splitting pass, scored from a powerful reverse hit.

Moments after the goal, Qureshi had a golden opportunity to equalise when the opposition goalkeeper advanced to stop an attack from the right and could not stop the pass across the goal. Qureshi, who found himself with an empty cage to put the ball in, went for a direct hit rather than stopping the ball and ended up missing it completely. 

Still trailing by a goal, the local team turned the game around in the second period. First, Ather Mirza receiving the ball on the top of the ‘D’ hit a powerful reverse shot into the left bottom corner, which the diving Jaswinder could do nothing about. Level on terms of goals, the railmen played with increased aggression and dominated the midfield. They went ahead for the first time in the game when a powerful ball in the box was spectacularly deflected in by Navneet Swarankar, diving full stretch.  

However, there was more drama to follow. Finding themselves a goal down, the Kapurtala team woke up and attacked their opponents circle, but the Mumbai side managed to hold fort till the last minute. RCF won a short corner in the dying seconds of the game and won three more in the plays that followed.

Gurwinder managed to get the ball over the line in the goal mouth scramble that ensued in the last penalty corner, pushing the game into tie-break. The teams were all square again in the shoot-out as only Nilesh Mane and Navneet Swarnakar managed to score their attempts for Central Railway and Simrandeep Singh and Gagandeep for RCF.

In the sudden death, Central’s Avesh Ansari’s weak push was saved by RCF goalkeeper Jaswinder and Simrandeep Singh made no mistake to seal their win.