Chennai: Central Secretariat qualified for semis by winning their last league game against Punjab and Sind Bank 4-2 in the Murugappa Gold Cup Hockey Tournament, held here at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium.
Having to win the match, to qualify for the semi-finals both the teams were evenly placed and challenged each other during the match. In the 13th Minute, Harmanjit Singh from Punjab and Sind Bank opened the scoring.
In the second quarter, the tough battle between the two teams continued and in the 19th minute Central secretariat earned the Penalty corner and Govind Singh Rawat duly converted it to level the scores.
The half, however, belonged to Central Secretariat as in the 24th minute, Dharambir Yadav found the net and within six minutes, just before the end of the second quarter, Gaurav Kumar scored yet another goal to help Central Secretariat enjoy a two-goal difference.
PSB came back strong in the third quarter and in the 35th minute, Satbir Singh scored the goal to reduce the score difference to just one-point deficit. Another round of an intense fight in the turf with the two teams followed but in the final quarter, Central Secretariat succeeded in not only restricting PSB from scoring the goal but in the 55th minute,Mohammad Umar deflected a penalty corner into the net to win the match 4-2 and qualify for the semis.
In another match, defending champions IOC drew with Punjab and National Bank 3-3 and both the teams qualified for the last four.