Gritty John scores a hat-trick

CHENNAI, OCT 8. For a brief moment John Varghese was in focus for the wrong reason. Down and rolling on the turf holding his head and crying, he was a picture of agony, even giving a fright to all around.

But soon he was up, making light of the accidental hit around the left ear and what is more went on to essay a hat-trick as Canara Bank trounced Central Bank of India 6-1 on the opening day of the BSB's all-India inter-bank hockey tournament at the Mayor Radhakrishnan stadium on Monday. A minor change was made to the schedule on Sunday night which made Canara Bank take the field instead of Bank of India, Mumbai.

John's fall and rise early in the second session changed the course of what had till then looked a closely fought match with both teams locked at the half time score of 1-1. In the space of five minutes towards the fag end, John was to find three successive hits to finish the argument so to say on which team was superior.

For all this it was Central Bank which shot into lead in the 10th minute through Sachin Godse. Canara Bank equalised through a penalty stroke conversion by Kaverappa four minutes later.

Seven minutes into the second session brought the next goal when in a moment of Canara's surge, David Sagayaraj showing admirable reflex turned around and scooped the ball into the cage in a jiffy. Specks of frayed tempers cropped up around this time and Central Bank's Vivek d'Souza and Canara's Sunil Benjamin were to cool their heels on temporary suspension.

Canara Bank fell into an attacking pattern, Ramu and Shanmugham noticeable in this and under pressure Central Bank end cracked. John helped Ricky Ganapathy to tap in the third goal before scoring his hat trick.

Earlier in the morning after Mr R. Natarajan, IOB Executive Director inaugurated the tournament, host IOB swamped Union Bank of India (Mumbai) 5-0, leading 3-0 at half time. L. Anandan scored thrice (not hat trick). D. Felix and C. Gopinath completed the tally.

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Section  : Sport
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