West Bengal Police scored a late winner to edge past Punjab Sports Club (PSC) 2-1 and moved into the second round of the Indian Oil Servo 109th All India Beighton Cup Hockey tournament in Kolkata on Monday.
The policemen, leading 1-0 at the breather, suffered a setback when PSC restored parity against the run of play from a penalty corner, but succeeded in regaining the lead five minutes from close through another successful short corner conversion.
Jugal Kishore Minz scored both the goals for the winners, who dominated for most part of the match, while Pawan Paswan sounded the board for PSC in the lacklustre enounter at the East Bengal ground.
West Bengal Police went into the lead as early as the third minute when Ashok Toppo set up the hard-working Minz with a fine centre from the right, who showed remarkable opportunism to slam home on the run.
Crossing over, the policemen launched several goal-bound attacks, but failed to capitalise on the chances which came their way.
Amidst the police raids, PSC got their second and last penalty corner of the match in the 48th minute from a sudden counter move, and Paswan proved equal to the task to successfully convert the set piece.
A desperate police team continued their onslaught and had the last laugh as Minz hit home a penalty corner.