PNB drub Fortis

Punjab National Bank (PNB) rallied from a goal down to overwhelm Fortis Sports 4-2 in the Bengaluru Super Hockey League at the Hockey Stadium on Thursday.

It took just 12 minutes for Fortis to open the scoring. Vinit Kamble dribbled past a slew of Punjab players to enter the striking circle before passing it back to Victo Singh, who slammed it into the net.

However, in the 32nd minute, the relentless pressure paid dividends as the Bankmen won a penalty corner, which was converted with ease by defender Gagandeep Singh.

Post the break, PNB started aggressively but missed a good chance to surge ahead when an unmarked Shamsher Singh failed to connect with a cross from forward Gagandeep Singh. The forward made no mistake in the 42nd minute as he put PNB in front.

Parveen Kumar restored parity for Fortis in the 46th minute. Four minutes later, the Bankmen regained the lead after a well-worked move which was finished by Shamsher. Naveen Antil added to Fortis’ woes with another goal in the 66th minute.

Results: Pool A: ONGC: 7 (Diwakar Ram 5th, 8th, Jagwant Singh 12th, 59th Pramod Kumar 16th, Sumit Kumar 21st, Hartaj Singh Aujla 23rd) bt Mahaveer Jain Sports Academy: 0.

Pool B: BPCL: 5 (Tushar Khandkar 4th, Gurpreet Singh 13th, Arjun Sharma 38th, Rajat Sharma 53rd, Gurpreet Singh 61st) bt SAI: 3 (Mokshith Uthappa CK 5th, Aravind B 11th, Stalin Abalish 15th); PNB: 4 (Gagandeep Singh 32nd, G’deep Singh 42nd, Shamsher Singh 50th, Naveen Antil 66th) bt Fortis Sports: 2 (Victo Singh 12th, Parveen Kumar 46th).