Railways stun IOC to win Murugappa title

CHENNAI: Indian Railways once again came from behind to beat the much-fancied Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) 2-1to win the 90th edition of the All India MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup hockey tournament at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium here on Sunday.
Kush JP scored the winning goal for Railways in the 60th minute to upset the defending champions, smartly deflecting a shot taken from the left past the goalkeeper.
In a frantic search for an equaliser in the dying minutes of the game, the IOC players seemed to lose their composure and squandered a slew of chances that were there for the taking. It was here that IOC sorely missed the services of skipper Deepak Thakur.
The experienced forward missed the match owing to an injury that he suffered in the semi-final against ONGC. Railways coach R Suresh Babu, who hails from Tamil Nadu, revealed that the lack of stars in their team worked to their advantage.
"We worked immensely hard on the fitness of the players and I'm glad that it has paid off. While IOC had more established players, what worked to our advantage was that we performed as a unit," Suresh said.
"It's a proud moment for me especially as we have won on my home turf," he added. Earlier, while the first half saw IOC take a 1-0 lead, both goalkeepers were kept equally busy and had to come up with some good saves to keep the opposition forwards at bay. The only goal of the opening 35 minutes came from the stick of the ever-reliable VR Raghunath as he gave the goalkeeper absolutely no chance to come in the way of his strike from a penalty corner. In the 42nd minute, Railways finally made it 1-1 through Malak Singh after some good work by Raju Pal in the build-up before going on to find the winner.