A controversial goal awarded by the referee to one of the teams sparked the battle, which led to serious injuries to at least one of the players, Rovers captain Firoz Shaikh, and minor injuries and bruises to almost all others.

The two teams play their hockey in the same area and have a history of enmity. On Thursday, tempers appeared frayed right from the starting whistle. When the referee awarded a goal to Chikhalwadi, the Rovers players protested vehemently, but in vain. On the very next move, Feroz Shaikh drove into the opposition half and was fouled by the defender. The two started an argument, the other players crowded them and soon started began raining blows on each other.

Even some spectators joined in the fight. Within minutes, a mob of about 40 were attacking each other with hockey sticks. Shaikh received a severe blow on his head that left him bleeding profusely.

The battle raged for a good 20 minutes. Finally, Basheer Sayyed, a representative of the Pune Police hockey team, who was one of the spectators, intervened. Brandishing his own hockey stick, he rushed in among the batters and restored order.

“I had come here to watch some of the games and saw instead a fight. I immediately went in, got a stick and set out to control the mob. It is a good thing that the mob was controlled in time, otherwise there would have been more serious injuries. Someone might even have died,” said the policeman.

Even after they were separated, the players hurled threats at each other as they went their respective ways. The match was declared abandoned.