Western Railway, M E G Bangalore survive close encounters

New Delhi, Feb 23 (UNI) On a day of close encounters, Western Railway edged past E M E Jalandhar 3-2 while M E G Bangalore prevailed over Indian Air Force by a similar scoreline in the phase one of the second Maharaja Ranjit Singh Hockey Tournamnet here today.

In the first match of the day, the Railway team started on a dominating note with Jayesh Jadhav on his best. He opened the scoreline for his team by scoring a forward goal in the 21st minute.

He soon followed it up by another one in the 34th minute and giving his team a 2-0 lead.

But E M E Jalandhar soon hit back with Avtar Singh reducing the margin and making it 2-1 in the 37th minute. However, with Hardeep Singh making it 3-1 in the 43rd minute the Railway looked in control.

Though A K Bhatti tried to bring out a close fight by hitting the second goal of his team the Jalandhar team failed to save the defeat.

The second close encounter of the day was almost an action replay of the first one with M E G Bnagalore taking a 2-0 lead in the 22nd minute. The Indian Air Force fought back with Kujur scoring for them in the 30th minute making it 2-1.

Dinesh Tirkey scored the third goal in the 32nd minute and the Bangalore team took a 3-1 lead. Pradeep then reduced the margin to 3-2 for the Air Force in the 45th minute but they failed to keep the momentum going and register an unlikely win.

Tomorrow Indian Navy will play against Sikh Regiment and M E G Banglaore will face Western Railway.

UNI SC DH KN1848