Yuvraj Walmiki fires hat-trick in Mumbai XI's stirring win

Yuvraj Walmiki

Discarded Indian hockey forward Yuvraj Walmiki struck a dazzling hat-trick to power Mumbai XI to a scintillating 7-5 victory over Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) in the 30^th All-India Surjit Singh Memorial hockey tournament being played at the Olympian Surjit Hockey Stadium, Burlton Park in Jalandhar.

Yuvraj, who is captaining the side in the tournament, led from the front helping them wrest the early initiative rattling the IOB cage in the sixth minute. The nimble-footed hitman, who recently played club hockey in Germany, was again in the thick of action, doubling the lead in the 27^th minute.

Vinod Kumar triggered more celebrations in the Mumbai XI camp when he sounded the board in the 30^th minute before V Shanmugam reduced the margin, but the former’s strike was enough to enable his side sit pretty on a 3-1 lead at half-time.

Vinod got his name on the scoresheet again early in the second half. Roshan Singh came to the party in a big way, slamming two twice in a space of two minutes. Yuvraj completed his hat-trick in the 51st

Mumbai XI were in cruise mode, leading 7-1 at this juncture before Indian Overseas Bank rebounded sensationally to strike four times in the closing stages to emerge losers without any disgrace.

Mohan Mothana fired twice for the bankmen, while V Vinod Rayer and D Muthuselvan scored one apiece.

The win is of academic interest as Mumbai XI are already out of semifinal contention after Army XI made the cut from Pool C.

Earlier, reigning champions Indian Oil, Mumbai lived up to their billing, sailing past Indian Air Force, Delhi 5-2 riding on a hat-trick from Olympian Deepak Thakur, to reach the semifinals from Pool A.

Indian Oil will not meet Army XI in the first semifinal on Thursday evening.

Meanwhile, ONGC, Delhi topped Pool B with an emphatic 3-0 win over BSF Jalandhar. They will meet Punjab & Sind Bank in the second semifinal on Thursday.

The bankmen thrice came from behind to hold Bharat Petroleum 3-3, but made it to the semifinals on better goal average after being tied at same number of points in Pool D.

The Surjit hockey tournament is the only event in the world where prizes like car, motor Cycles, refrigerators, etc will be handed out to the spectators. Spectators would get daily lucky coupons till October 18 at the entry gate of the stadium while players/officials would be issued the lucky coupons on the day of their first match. The lucky draw for the ALTO and other prizes will be held soon after the final whistle of the final match.

Famous Punjabi folk singer and actor Diljit Dosanjh would entertain the spectators from 5:30 onwards, before the start of final match on October 18.