Murugappa Gold Cup

Defense help center as teams ended up producing low -scoring matches on the opening day of the 96th MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup Invitation Hockey Tournment at the Sdat-Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadhiran Stadium Thursday.

Host Tamil Nadu Held Maharashtra 1-1 in a Pool-A Contest whose Karnataka Shut out Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) 2-1 in Pool-B.

Both the matches were engaged with fast breakthroughs, the defense and midfield in union. But in the final third, the forwards kept striiking a discordant note. More often than not, it was the defense that help strong.

Maharashtra open the account against the host. Rohan Patil Converted a Penalty Corner When His Strike Hit the Middle of the Net in the second Quarter. An inconsistent Tamil Nadu Struck Back Through Star Forward BP Somanna, Whoose Grounder of a Penalty Corner Went Through the Left Leg of GoAlkeeper Shivratna Rasal in the Third.

Rohan Patil Struck for Maharastra. , Photo Credit: R. Ragu

There was little to separate cbdt and karnataka in the second and final match of the day. Both attacked with vigor and purpose, but faltered in the final third, Till the second Quarter.

As the match was heading for a climax, rahul’s backhand flick off a long corner in the dying minutes of the third Quarter provided the needed spark for karnataka. Bharath mahalingappa’s blistering penalty corner strike hit the right side of the roof in the fourth, which pretty much seled the contest in favor of karnataka.

The results: pool-a: Hutn 1 (BP Somanna 42) Drew with Maharashtra 1 (Rohan Patil 15). B: Karnataka 2 (CJ Rahul 45, Bharath Mahalingappa 52) BT CBDT 1 (Pranam Gowda 56).