Kolkata: ONGC started its campaign by defeating RCF (Kapurthala) 3-2 in a quarterfinal league match of the Coal India 116th all-India Beighton Cup hockey at the SAI ground, here on Thursday.

RCF came back twice to draw level as ONGC opened up a lead. Sandeep Antil opened the scoring in the 20th minute before Sanjay Bir levelled the score for RCF at the half-hour mark.

Diwakar Ram restored the lead for ONGC in the 53rd minute, converting a penalty corner, before Simrandeep Singh drew level for RCF in the 60th minute in a similar fashion. Ram struck his second goal, again off a penalty corner, two minutes later (62nd) to finally seal the issue for ONGC.

Punjab National Bank ensured its qualification to the quarterfinal league blanking Western Railway 3-0 in a pre-quarterfinal encounter.

The results: Quarterfinal league: ONGC 3 (Sandeep Antil, Diwakar Ram 2) bt RCF (Kapurthala) 2 (Sanjay Bir, Simrandeep Singh). Pre-quarterfinals: Punjab National Bank 3 (Yudhveer Singh, Ajitesh, Jalwinder) bt Western Railway 0 .

The Hindu