Peaking at the right time: The Navy team turned it around after a slow start.
| Photo Credit: B. VELANKANNI RAJ
The Malaysian National junior team started well, but couldn’t sustain the momentum and was roundly thrashed 4-1 by the Indian Navy in their opening Pool-B match of the 96th MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup invitation hockey tournament at the SDAT-Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium on Saturday. Earlier, former champion Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) overcame Karnataka 4-3 in another Pool-B tie.
In the first match of the day, defending champion Indian Railways played a sub-par game but managed to defeat Indian Army 2-1 in a lacklustre Pool-A tie.
The third and final match of the day between Malaysia and Navy was interrupted by heavy rain as play resumed after an hour’s delay.
The highlight of the match was Navy’s second goal by Navin Kerketta in the dying minutes of the third quarter. The 19-year-old from Jharkhand raced from the half-line towards the circle and demonstrated a 1-2 with Bhavin Kushalappa before pushing it home.
Trailing 1-3, IOC fought back in style to outlast a young Karnataka side, which impressed with its speed, guile and shooting prowess. With a few seconds remaining for the hooter, senior player Talwinder Singh found the winner by unleashing a backhander from an acute angle from the right to seal the deal for IOC.
The results: Pool-A: Indian Railways 2 (Darshan Gawkar 27, Gursahibjit Singh 58) bt Indian Army 1 (Masih Das Herenj 28).
B: IOC 4 (Gurjinder Singh 6, V. R. Ragunath 44, Sudeep Chirmakoo 50, Talwinder Singh 60) bt Karnataka 3 (N. M. Surya 8, C. P. Livin 22, Chethan M Karisiri 34); Indian Navy 4 (Ashish Topno 8, Navin Kerketta 44, Sushil Dhanwar 47, K. Selvaraj 52) bt Malaysia National junior team 1 (Mohd. Harris Iskandar 2).
Published – July 12, 2025 09:53 pm IST
