Central Railway staged an imressive comeback to down Karnataka XI 3-2 in the women’s category match on the opening day of the second edition of Bengaluru Cup hockey tournament at the Hockey Stadium here on Saturday.
With a reasonably sized audience backing the home team, the Karnataka girls made a perfect start as they opened the scoring in the third minute.
Rashmi PP displayed fine dribbling skills as she tackled past a host of defenders and set up a simple tap-in for Pooja MD. Railways’ situation become more dire as Karnataka added to their goal tally in the 15th minute. Komala BM’s flick from a penatly corner took a deflection off a defender and fell kindly for Sushma CG, who tapped in to make it 2-0.
That was just the wake-up call the Railway girls needed as they began to attack at full throttle and they were rewarded in the 19th minute.
After a series of quick passes, the ball found its way to Kavita Vidyarthi, who made a darting run into the box and was at hand to put the ball past Karnataka goalkeeper Rohini MP.
The home team’s lack of defensive awareness cost them as Railways equalised in the 23rd minute, courtesy of a penalty corner, as Sandeep Kaur’s deflected shot found the back of the net.
The home side’s frailities at defending penalty corners was exposed as Ranjita Sanasam hit the board in the 27th minute to make it 3-2 after skipper Soundarya Yendala cracked a well directed shot from inside the area.
Army XI begin well
Army XI edged past Bharath Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) 2-1 in a hard-fought opening fixture of the men’s event .
Results: Men: Army XI: 2 (Binay B 40th, Chandan A 47th) bt BPCL: 1 (Gurpreet S 64th).
Women: Central Railway: 3 (Kavita V 19th, Sandeep Kaur 23rd, Ranjita S 27th) bt Karnataka XI: 2 (Pooja MD 3rd, Sushma CG 15th); Haryana XI: 3 (Shilpi Dabas 16th, Devika Sen 61st, Pinki 68th) bt Punjab XI: 0.