Chandigarh, October 25, 2016: Indian Air Force advanced to the next round after beating Central Reserve Protection Force by 3-1 in the 46th S.N. Vohra’s All India Gurmit Memorial Hockey Tournament at the Sector 42 Hockey Stadium here today.
In another match Rail Coach Factory of Kapurthala disposed of the challenge of Central Industrial Security Force by 4-1.
Indian Air Force were quickly moved into action and within a span of four minutes they they went two up. With match only five minutes old, Indian Air Force struck their first goal through Harwant Singh who scored a field goal.
Maintaining their pressure, IAF forced a penalty corner in the ninth minute and Sanwar Ali converted it without any problem.
Despite two goals down, CRPF hit back and reduced the margin with Prasant Tirkey scoring a field goal in the 29th minute. IAF led 2-1 at interval.
Sanwar Ali sealed the CRPF fate by scoring his second and team's third goal in the 41st minute.
The second match between RCF and CISF remained goalless in the first half. However on resumption Rail Coach Factory went on offensive and pumped in four goals and CISF were able to got their consolation goal after conceeding two goals.
Rail Coach Factory were awarded a penalty stroke in the 53rd minute and Smrandeep Singh made no mistake to give his team the lead. Two minutes later, the Kapurthala team doubled the margin with Gagandeep converting a field goal.
CISF worked hard to bounce back into the game. They earned a penalty corner in the 60th minute and Harpreet converted it to make it 1-2.
Rail Coach Factory mounted relentless pressure and added two more goals to emerge clearcut winners. Ajit Pandit found the target in the 66th minute to make it 3-1 and Varinder Singh rounded of the winners' tally in the 70th minute by scoring field goal.
Tomorow's fixtures: Chandigarh XI vs SC Railway (2 p.m); Namdhari XI vs Punjab National Bank (3.30 p.m).