Sikh Regiment and Indian Navy win in the opening day MRSHT

New Delhi, Feb 22 (UNI) Sikh Regiment Centre defeated Northern Railway 5-3 by tie-breaker and Indian Navy beat Corps of Signal 2-1 in their opening matches in the 2nd Maharaja Ranjit Singh Hockey Tournament, which got under way here today.

The opening match of the tourney between Sikh Regiment Centre and Northern Railway saw both the teams fight to the last.

After a goalless first half the Railway team opened the scoreline when Rupinder Singh scored in the 56th minute and made it 1-0.

But the joy was shortlived as Satnam Singh Sr equalised for the Sikh Regiment in the 65th minute.

After the extratime failed to yield any result the final score was decided through tie-breaker. In the tie-breaker while the Sikh Regiment player hit the target successfully Vijay Kumar and Gajinder failed to score for Northern Railway. The final tie-breaker score read 4-2, giving the Regiment a 5-3 victory.

In the second match of the day the Indian Navy defeated Corps of Signals by 2-1. Though Corps of Signals drew the first blood with C Beck scoring the first goal in the sixth minute to the opening of the game Sajit Kumar equalised just three minutes before half-time.

When the scoreline remained unchanged in the second half the match progressed to the extra time and Ajay Kumar scored the Golden Goal in the 74th minute of the extra time to give his side a 2-1 victory.

In tomorrow's matches, E M E Jalandhar will face Western Railway and Air Force will take on M E G Bangalore.

Apart from top leading Indian teams two foreign teams, Pakistan International Airlines and Bangladesh Army XI, are also participating in this championship.

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