Chennai, Aug 25 (PTI) Manip Kerketta’s impressive hat-trick ensured a 4-3 victory for Indian Air Force in their Muruguppa Gold Cup Hockey match against Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu (HUT) here on Friday.
While Lovedeep Singh put IAF in front in the sixth minute, Kerketta doubled the lead ten minutes later. With Y Anand pulling one back in the 29th for HUT, Kerketta netted IAF’s third in the 35th.
In the 38th, it was S Mareeswaran’s turn to score for HUT, but Kerketta found the back of the net again in the 43rd, which turned out to be IAF’s winner before V Arvind scored the final consolation in the 48th for HUT.
Earlier, the opening encounter of the day was between Punjab National Bank (PNB) and the Comptroller & Audit General of India (CAG), with the latter winning by a huge margin of 6-2.
For CAG, V Veerathamizhan scored a brace in the 34th and 58th, along with B Abharan Sudev (seventh), Manish Yadav (12th), Parvinder Singh (17th) and Jay Prakash Patel (20th). Meanwhile, Bhagat Singh Dhillon was the lone scorer for PNB, netting in the 18th and 50th minutes.
In the succeeding meet, Hockey Karnataka (KAR) was up against the Indian Railways (RSPB), which resulted in a 1-1 draw. While Pratap Lakra scored for RSPB in the fifth, Sunil SV restored the deadlock in the 33rd.
On Saturday, Hockey Karnataka takes on the Central Secretariat, followed by Punjab National Bank against the Indian Army before the evening match between the Indian Navy and Indian Oil Corporation of India.
Source: PTI News
