Bharat Petroleum scored an impressive 2-1 victory over holders and Mumbai league champions Western Railway to improve their chances of making it to the April 29 final of the 44th Bombay Gold Cup Hockey Tournament in Mumbai on Tuesday.
In another round-robin semi-final between two Bangalore-based teams, Army Eleven swamped Namdhari XI 4-0.
Former international Sabu Varkey earned Bharat Petroleum victory, scoring two minutes from the end following his team's sixth and last penalty-corner.
Len Aiyappa scored BPCL's other goal, also from a penalty-corner in the 42nd minute.
Western Railway secured three penalty-corners and wasted all. Jayesh Jadhav's accounted for their lone goal.
The fit and robust army team took a 1-0 lead at half-time through skipper Cypria Aind (16th minute) and then slammed in three more goals in the second half to complete the rout.
S Kumar Ekka (40th) fetched Army XI their second goal before Suresh Kumar knocked in a brace of goals in five minutes. All the goals were fine field efforts.