Diwakar shines for ONGC

Diwakar Ram’s brace helped table-toppers Oil and Natural Gas Corporation edge Punjab National Bank 3-2 in their Ozone Group-KSHA National hockey league clash at the KSHA stadium on Thursday evening.

Diwakar’s goals came in the 45th and 49th minutes of the match while Mandeep Antil struck the opening goal in the 30th minute.

Ajitesh Roy sounded the board for PNB in the 47th minute and Jitender Saroha slammed home another in the 70th minute.

ONGC have 18 points from six matches having won all their matches in the league so far.
In an earlier match, Fortis scored a thumping 5-3 win over Madras Engineering Group (MEG) ‘A’. Fortis skipper Vikramjit Singh starred with a brace in the 49th and 54th minutes of the game.

Shashi Topno opened the scoring for Fortis with a penalty-corner conversion in the 19th minute.

Innocent Kullu, then, calmly slotted the ball in off a penalty stroke in the 24th minute as Fortis racked up a 2-0 lead.

The Sappers bounced back when Dayal fired the ball home off a Muthanna pass in the 30th minute.

The teams were evenly balanced at half-time.

After the break, CU Bopanna tapped the ball in off a long pass from Siraj in the 42nd minute. At 2-2, the match could have gone either way but Fortis had other plans.

Vikramjit’s chanceless dragflicks in the 49th and 54th minutes taking the match away from MEG.

Daler’s goal in the 57th minute made it 5-2 and all but ended the match.

Pruthvi pulled one back in the 58th minute for MEG but they were left with too much to do in the last ten minutes.

Air India defeated Army Red 3-2 in the final match of the day.

Results: Fortis: 5 (Shashi Topno 19th, Innocent Kullu 24th, Vikramjit Singh 49th, 54th, Daler 57th) bt MEG ‘A’: 3 (Dayal 30th, Bopanna 42nd, Pruthvi Shetty 58th); ONGC: 3 (Mandeep Antil 30th, Diwakar Ram 45th, 49th) bt PNB: 2 (Ajitesh Roy 47th, Jitender Saroha 70th).