DAV College, Army XI notch up victories in Ranjit Singh Hockey

Spirited DAV College, Jalandhar came back from a one-goal deficit to beat Sikh Regimental Centre (SRC), Ramgarh 2-1 in the qualifying encounter of the fourth Oriental Bank Maharaja Ranjit Singh Hockey tournament that commenced at the Shivaji Stadium here on Monday.

The Jalandhar College, which emerged triumphant in the just-concluded Nehru Champion Colleges hockey, put up a spirited show as they rallied to overpower their opponents to seal the match in their favour.

SRC team shot ahead (1-0) in the 21st minute through Harwinder Singh strike. The losing side continued to maintain their lead till late second half but faltered in the last twenty minutes as the young brigade bounced back to restore parity through Lakhwinder Singh in the 50th minute (1-1).

The eventual winners never looked back after leveling the scores as they launched flurry of attacks in the rival citadel forcing rival players to adopt defensive strategy.

The defensive ploy didn’t help the Ramgarh outfit much as the Jalandhar team went ahead (2-1) six minutes later as Lakhwinder Singh’s struck his second, which also turned out to be the match-winner.

In the second qualifying match of the day, Army XI easily outscored Northern Railway 2-0. The railwaymen didn’t prove any threat to their rivals in the entire duration of the match. D Mahadik opened the account for the armymen in the 19th minute of the game, while Anil Kumar Ekka consolidated the lead a minute before the half-time hooter.