Gurpreet leads Namdhari to huge win over Bhopal; BPCL also advance

Mumbai, Apr 22 (UNI) Gurpreet Singh's three superb penalty corner conversions helped Namdhari XI rout Bhopal XI 5-2 and book a place in the semifinal league phase of the 44th Bombay Gold Cup hockey tournament at the Mahindra stadium here today.

Also booking their place in the semifinal league today were Bharat Petroleum, who beat a plucky South Central Railway 7-6 via the sudden death.

Namdhari proved too good for Bhopal, who were playing without their main player Sameer Dad, who had injured himself in the last match.

Namdhari took control of the game right from the start, but had to wait for 23 minutes before they could get on the scoresheet. From the first penalty corner for them, Gurpreet put them in the lead with a superb drag flick.

This goal then spurred the Namdhari's and they forced another penalty corner in the 26th minute and Gurpreet once again stepped up to put them ahead 2-0 in the 27th minute.

The second half saw Namdhari take total control of the match and just two minutes after the breather Harbhajan Singh put them up 3-0 with a powerful shot.

Harpreet then once again scored of the third penalty corner to have cent per cent conversion rate with another drag flick in the 48th minute as Namdhari began toying with the opposition.

In the 50th minute, Namdhari went up 5-0 as this time Gurcharan Singh took the penalty corner shot and scored with a direct hit to put his team up 5-0.

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