Railway teams march on

MUMBAI: The day saw 14 goals in the two matches of the All India Tommy Emar Gold Cup women’s hockey tournament, with Central and Western Railway coming out with flying colours at the Mahindra Stadium on Friday. With all-win records, the day’s winners placed themselves atop the tables in pool A and B after finishing the group league ties.

With all interest on the day’s second match involving local outfit Western Railway and Combined South Zone, witnessed a convincing 5-0 win for the formers. Saba Anjum scored three goals while captain Nishi Chauhan and Asima Bilchen Kispotta finding the target once apiece in a one-sided affair.

Earlier, it was another one-way traffic in which Central Railway inflicting a huge nine-goal defeat to Resita XI including a hat-trick from Sangeeta Singh. Manju Phaszwal, Mamta Kharrab, Sadhana Singh, Ranjith S, Sarita Hanuman and Pratibha Sawani completed the rout.

The second match also was dominated by the Western Railway girls and there were hardly any instances when the opponents marched up to the winners’ goal in a well-plotted move. The few odd balls that landed in the Western Railway D were either cleared by solid defensive displays or to everyone’s surprise, they were squandered by the weaker opponents themselves.

The Western Railway moved ahead quite early in the 14th minute when Saba scored following a penalty corner that was on the verge of being squandered. Then in the 26th minute skipper Nishi’s flick goal just before losing her balance was a treat to watch. Saba again scored five minutes later to give her team a 3-0 lead to carry it on till the lemon break.
 
When it required an enthusiastic turnaround from the Combined South Zone players, they mellowed down even more to make it easy for the Western Railway after the breather. Winners bolstered the lead further through Asima (56th) and Saba (61). The other two semi-finalists were Ranchi XI and Orissa XI with three points each. Central Railway will take on Ranchi while  WR will face Orissa.