Rail Wheel Factory defeated South Western Railway 2-1 in a Group B encounter of the Travancore Cup hockey tournament at the KSHA stadium here on Friday.

In a match which began amidst a light shower and that ended in near darkness, RWF took the lead through Imran who scored against run of the play in the fourth minute. Sriram swelled RWF’s tally in the 16th minute with a powerful reverse flick from the left flank after latching on to Sampath’s long cross.

Sitting on a two goal lead, RWF relaxed a bit for which they had to pay the penalty as an unmarked Hassan Ali pulled one back for the Railwaymen in the 27th minute from the edge of the ‘D’.

Unlike the first half that saw both the teams coming out with attacking moves, both the sides surprisingly went into defensive mode in the second half. Both the teams came a cropper when it came to set-piece conversion as evident from the fact that neither side succeeded in converting penalty corners which numbered to eleven. With both the teams waiting for something to happen rather than making things happen, it didn’t come as a surprise that the scoreline did not swell further.

Despite the defeat, custodian Irfan Adil stood tall amidst the SWR ruins, effecting a couple of brilliant saves.

Army XI win big
Earlier, Rajesh scored seven goals (12th, 17th, 20th, 23rd, 25th, 49th, 58th) as Army XI trounced Kaveri HC by 15-1 in a lop-sided Group D match. SV Sunil too joined the Army XI goal glut by netting four (3rd, 5th, 18th, 52nd) while Suresh scored a brace (28th, 44th) and Banti Singh (19th) and Arumugam (21st) scored one apiece to pile the misery on Kaveri for whom Ranju Muthappa scored a consolation goal in the 48th minute.