MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup Semi-finals: IOC Meets Indian Army, Railways Prepares for Odisha Challenge
Chennai, 26th September 2024: Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) drew with National Centre of Excellence (NCOE) Bhopal 5-5 in a thrilling Pool B match in the 95th All-India MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup Hockey Tournament here on Thursday while defending champions Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) stormed into the last four with a thumping victory over Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu (HUTN).
In Saturday’s semifinals, Railways, topper from Pool A will take on Odisha while IOC (Pool B topper) runs into Indian Army (Pool A runner-up).
In a match which saw both sides play attacking hockey, IOC jumped to a 2-0 lead before NCOE fought back to level and went on to hold the advantage at 3-2. The Bhopal team was 3-2 ahead as the first half neared a close before IOC levelled through Talwinder Singh in the 29th minute. Again, NCOE surged forward through a goal from Parmod in the 43rd minute. Sumit Kumar scored IOC’s fourth in the 45th minute as the two teams were locked at 4-all.
Pawan Kumar Jaat gave a crucial lead for NCOE, with a goal in the 52nd minute and the Bhopal team appeared set to pull off an upset before Manpreet blasted home from a penalty corner to even out things in the 59th minute, making 5-5.
IOC finished its round-robin engagements with three wins and a draw and ended up with 10 points. The strong IOC team qualified for the semifinal with Hockey Odisha in Pool B (7 points from 4 matches).
IOC’s Affan Yosuf, Vickram Kant (C), Gurinder Singh, and Gujinder Singh, despite being down with a viral illness, played in today’s match and are hopeful of a full recovery ahead of Saturday’s semi-finals.
In the Railways-HUTN match, the defending champions were all over the home team, scoring almost at will. Pardeep Singh scored a brace while Aditya Singh, Shivam Anand and Joginder Singh had a goal each, making it 5-0 for Railways.
Results:
Pool A: Indian Oil Corporation Ltd 5 (Roshan Minz (08), Affan Yosuf (10), Talwinder Singh (29), Sumit Kumar (45), Manpreet (59)) Draws NCOE Bhopal 5 (Sadiq Mohd (16), Pawan Kumar Jaat (23, 52), Farz MD (28), Parmod (43))
Pool B: RSPB-Railways 5 (Pardeep Singh (07, 15), Aditya Singh (10), Shivam Anand (39), Joginder Singh (43)) beats Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu 0
Match schedule: Saturday, 28th September, 2024
1st Semi-finals at 04.15 PM – (POOL A Winner) RSPB-Railways vs (POOL B Runner) Hockey Association of Odisha
2nd Semi-finals at 06.00 PM – (POOL B Winner) Indian Oil Corporations LTD vs (POOL A Runner) Indian Army-Red
First Match
| Players | Minute |
| Roshan Minz (IOC) | 08 FG |
| Affan Yosuf (IOC) | 10 FG |
| Sadiq Mohd (NCOE) | 16 FG |
| Pawan Kumar Jaat (NCOE) | 23 PC |
| Faraz MD (NCOE) | 28 PC |
| Talwinder Singh (IOC) | 29 FG |
| Parmod (NCOE) | 43 PC |
| Sumit Kumar (IOC) | 45 FG |
| Pawan Kumar Jaat (NCOE) | 35 FG |
| Manpreet (IOC) | 47 PC |
Second Match
| Players | Minute |
| Pardeep Singh (RSPB) | 07 FG |
| Aditya Singh (RSPB) | 10 FG |
| Pardeep Singh (RSPB) | 15 FG |
| Shivam Anand (RSPB) | 39 FG |
| Joginder Singh (RSPB) | 43 PS |
| POOL – A | ||||||||
| SL.NO | TEAM | PLAYED | WON | DRAWN | LOST | FOR | AGAINST | POINTS |
| 1 | RAILWAY SPORTS PROMOTION BOARD | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 15 | 8 | 10 |
| 2 | INDIAN ARMY – RED | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 5 | 8 |
| 3 | BHARAT PETROLEUM CORPORATION LTD | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 11 | 12 | 4 |
| 4 | HOCKEY MAHARASTRA | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 9 | 13 | 3 |
| 5 | HOCKEY UNIT OF TAMIL NADU | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 11 | 3 |
| POOL- B | ||||||||
| SL.NO | TEAM | PLAYED | WON | DRAWN | LOST | FOR | AGAINST | POINTS |
| 1 | INDIAN OIL CORPORATION LTD (IOCL) | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 18 | 8 | 10 |
| 2 | HOCKEY ODISHA | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 8 | 7 |
| 3 | HOCKEY KARANATAKA | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 13 | 11 | 6 |
| 4 | NCOE, BHOPAL | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 13 | 14 | 4 |
| 5 | CENTRAL SECRETARIAT | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 18 | 1 |
