NICE DH Cup 2022: Goals galore as corporates get going

NICE DH Cup 2022, the intercorporate five-a-side football tournament got off to a flying start yesterday with four matches. This inaugural tournament with a rolling trophy has ten teams competing. The matches will be held on weekends to facilitate corporates playing, given their busy schedules.

Titan and Epsilon playing the first match were well-balanced. Epsilon scored in the opening minutes with Rohith Kamath netting one in and Titan took the lead with two quick goals by Shivashankaran and Hariprasad Prasad in the beginning of the second half. Epsilon put up a spirited fight and pulled out an equalizer in the last kick of the game virtually at the long whistle by Vinod M Venugopal holding his nerve to convert half a chance.

In match two, BOSCH beat IQVIA 5-2. Early in the game, K S Dinesh Kumar gave IQVIA a two-goal cushion but the team couldn't capitalise on it. Arun Kumar got past the defenders to net one in just before half time. In the second half, BOSCH came back strong with Arun Kumar, Arun Roy and Syed Shadab finding the net for a two-goal lead. Arun Kumar is the first player in NICE DH Cup 2022 to score a hat trick when he got is third in the last minute of the game.

Match three between Tavant and Puravankara was one-sided with Tavant dominating with a 7-0 win. Syed Ashed Ahmed and Sudheera Devadiga scored two each while Mohammed Razique Barkath, Jayan P Cherian and Shubham scoring one each.

In match four, Wissen had it easy with a 14-1 win over HL Klemove. While both teams scored one each within the first couple of minutes of the whistle, promising a keen game, Wissen ended up dominating in the one-sided match. Akash Mali scored six, Sidharth Mavila scored four, Shylesh Thilagar and Shubham Pawar scored two each.

Aravind Shekar, Suresh Devaraj and Kevin A were the referees on a memorable Day One of NICE DH Cup 2022.

Brief scores:
Match 1: Titan (2) drew with Epsilon (2)
Match 2: BOSCH (5) beat IQVIA (2)
Match 3: Tavant (7) beat Puravankara (0)
Match 4: Wissen (14) beat HL Klemove (1)