Bhopal: The Obaidullah Khan Heritage Hockey Cup got off with a goal riot on the opening day at the Aishbagh Hockey Stadium in Bhopal last evening. A picturesque opening ceremony with presence of the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was followed by the teams for the opening encounters.
Madhya Pradesh Hon’ble Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan greets V.R. Raghunath during the opening ceremony of Obaidullah Khan Heritage Hockey Cup in Bhopal on September 14, 2016.
In the starter of the tournament, ONGC stunned the runners up of the Murugappa Gold Cup Indian Oil 4-2 while in the second game, BPCL beat the Association of Indian Universities 5-2.
Starting of the first game, Indian Oil opened the scoring in the 9th minute via Gurjinder Singh. VR Raghunath equalised via drag flick in the 38th minute and then onward ONGC grabbed the game with goals from Diwakar Ram (40’, 59’) and Gurwinder Singh (55’) gave them a three-goal lead. And then it was all about time as Indian Oil could only cut that down the lead with another PC conversion via Victo Singh in the 67th minute, which in the end proved too little too late, as ONGC ran out winners.
Second game, like the first one, was also a one- sided result wherein, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. beat the Association of Indian Universities 5-2. Though the scoreline suggests differently, it took till the second half for the first goal of the game; SV Sunil scored in the 37th minute to give BPCL the lead. Five minutes later Tushar Khandker doubled the score in BPCL’s favor. Universities team AIU hit back with a goal almost from the restart via KP Somiah and then equalised in the 54th minute via Navjot Singh. BPCL again went on offensive as they scored in the 57th minute via a Gurpreet Singh PC conversion followed goals from Hari Prasad (59’) and Lalit Kumar Upadhyay (70’) to marginalise any chances of comeback of AIU in the match and gave BPCL their first victory.
Artists perform during the opening ceremony of Obaidullah Khan Heritage Hockey Cup in Bhopal on September 14, 2016.