Bangalore, May 14: Debutants Border Security Force (BSF) did not have a rosy welcome to their entry in the PSB 58th Senior National hockey championship at the Sports Authority of India (South) Centre, near here, on Wednesday. They were held by the throat by Hyderabad till the 68th minute of the match in a pool C encounter, before winning by the odd goal in three.

Fancied Tamil Nadu were the other side to enjoy the taste of victory in pool E with a 7-1 win over Madhya Bharat.

What was expected to be a one sided match in favour of the BSF, turned out to be a humdinger with the BSF forwards guilty of missing too many sitters. It was only in the 50th minute of the match did the Harbajan-Shinu combination fructify into a goal. The former after drawing the attention of the rival defence with his catchy run from the centre line, passed the ball to an unmarked Shinu, who pulled the rival custodian out of position before jabbing the ball home.

Hyderabad restored parity 11 minutes later against the run of play with Elia deflecting a Paul Moses free-hit.

Stung by the goal, BSF attacked with added vigour and found the match winner with only two minutes left for close, when Harbajan tapped in a Habul Topno through pass.

Earlier, playing like a well-oiled machine, Tamil Nadu handed out a lesson or two to hapless Madhya Bharat with forward Kevin scoring a brace. Thirumalvalavan, L Prabhakaran, Mohammed Riaz, Jagan Senthil and Senthil Kumar were the other scorers for the winners, while Madhya Bharat got their consolation goal through Nafis Raza.

That Tamil Nadu won the match despite being reduced to ten men in the second half for ten minutes shows the supremacy they enjoyed. Olympian Mohammed Riaz was carded for deliberate fencing.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.