Defending champion Indian Railways and Indian Navy scripted an all-win record in their respective pools with impressive victories as the league matches in the MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup invitation hockey tournament came to an end at the SDAT-Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium here on Thursday.
Railways scored a comfortable 5-2 victory over SAI-NCOE (Bhopal) in a Pool-A match, while Navy shocked former champion IOC 3-2 in an exciting Pool-B tie.
Undoubtedly, Navy has been the standout team in the tournament. The young team has shown remarkable ability to outpace its opponent in every match. With some outstanding players such as strikers K. Selvaraj and Ajinkya Jadhav and midfielder Navin Kerketta, Navy has set an example for others to follow for the right mix of defence and offence.
Hitting back
After a goalless first two quarters, IOC opened the account towards the end of the third when Olympian V.R. Raghunath converted a penalty corner. Then, in a matter of six minutes, Navy showcased its attacking might by scoring three goals from which the former champion never recovered.
K. Selvaraj was the star of the match as he scored a brace. First, he scored by deflecting a shot from a penalty corner taken by Sanjit Toppo and then netted a rebound from the ’keeper Pankaj Rajak.
Requiring a victory to make it to the playoffs, NCOE never really showed the stomach for a win as Railways literally closed out the match in the first two quarters by slotting in four goals. Former International Gursahibjit Singh was again the torchbearer for his team with a hat-trick.
Friday is a rest day.
The results: Pool-A: Indian Railways 5 (Gursahibjit Singh 7, 28 & 59, Darshan Gawkar 21, Shivam Anand 26) bt NCOE Bhopal 2 (Mohit Karma 32, Munish Malik 37).
Pool-B: Navy 3 (K. Selvaraj 49 & 55, Ashish Topno 54) bt IOC 2 (V. R. Raghunath 45, Gurjinder Singh 60).
Points table (read as team, played, won, draw, loss, points):Pool-A: Railways, 4, 4, 0, 0, 12; Army, 4, 2, 0, 2, 6; HUTN, 4, 1, 2, 1, 5; SAI NCOE (Bhopal) 4, 1, 1, 2, 4; Maharashtra, 4, 0, 1, 3, 1.
Pool-B: Navy, 4, 4, 0, 0, 12; IOC, 4, 3, 0, 1, 9; Karnataka, 4, 1, 1, 2, 4; Malaysian National junior team, 4, 1, 1, 2, 4; CBDT, 4, 0, 0, 4, 0.
Semifinal line-up: Railways vs IOC; Navy vs Army.
Published – July 17, 2025 08:27 pm IST
