Murugappa hockey: Wins for ONGC, Railways
Chennai, July 19: Defending champions Army XI not only lost their match but also their cool and assaulted the umpire as they went down 1-4 to ONGC in a pool A match of the 86th All-India MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup hockey tournament here Sunday.
Umpire Surya Prakash, after being struck on the head by Army player Sunil Ekka, suffered an injury and was rushed to a hospital.
The Army players were infuriated when Prakash flashed green cards at two of its players, who had to leave the field to serve a two-minute suspension. They surrounded the umpire and in the ruckus, Sunil Ekka hit the umpire on the head with his hockey stick.
Army's day of shame was complete when the replacement umpire Tyagi sent out Ekka and William Xalxo and the ONGC capitalised on the advantage to romp home winners.
ONGC went ahead in the eighth minute when Tryon gave the team its first goal. After that, two penalty strokes by Sundeep Antil and Diawakar Ram put them in a comfortable 3-0 lead by the 32nd minute. The setbacks, besides the green cards, contributed to Army's frustration, leading to the incident.
Army pulled one back when Eliziar Lakra found the boards but Pramod Kumar made it 4-1 for ONGC, in the end.
Earlier, Indian Railways beat Karnataka XI 3-2. Vivek Singh (penalty stroke), Kulu and Rajesh Pande scored for the Railways while Karnataka, who are out of the tournament with two defeats, found their man in Nithin Thimmaiah who struck twice in the 30th and 34th minutes.
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