Bangalore, May 14: Gujarat turned the tables on Patiala to cause a mild flutter in the inaugural match while debutants Central Excise & Customs managed to hold Maharashtra to a 1-1 draw in the Punjab and Sind Bank 58th Senior National Hockey Championship at the Sports Authority of India South Centre today.

In Group G, Gujarat, bolstered by the presence of six SAI hostel boys from Gandhinagar, rallied from a deficit goal to drub Patiala 4-1, despite muffing two strokes. After Deepak Sonkhla put Patiala ahead in the 12th minute, K Kamlesh netted the equaliser. After the breather they increased the tally through goals from Nissar Garasia, Lakanpal and Kamlesh. Patiala too wasted a stroke.

In another Group `C' match in the morning, former champions Railways pumped in nine goals against a hapless Vidarbha, but manager V Baskaran was not too happy with the team's showing.

Central Excise and Customs, who were granted associate membership along with five other teams, played defensively in a Group `E' match and did well to contain Maharashtra for the first half. They took the lead 17 minutes into the second session, when local boy and former India player Vinod Chinnappa shot home after Daljit Singh did the initial spade work.

But the lead proved to be short-lived as Maharashtra woke up creating more attacking moves and earned a penalty corner in the 62nd minute. Sanjay Polayya, who took the push was at hand to deflect home after Sailesh Gaware's hit was stopped by the rival custodian. Bashir Sayyed push off the rebound went as far as Sanjay, who made no mistake to score the equaliser.Railways began with a bang, scoring in the fourth minute with international Hasrat Qureshi sounding the boards. Qureshi, along with Ekka on the right flank and Walter Lakra on the left moved into the rival half combining well and gave an advancing pass to Ekka while Lakra moved down the flank drawing out two defenders to the other side. Ekka returned the ball to Qureshi in the striking circle and he shot home.

However, the Railmen looked good only in patches and took another 24 minutes to score the second goal which came through Rajiv Mishra. But once they crossed over, they opened the floodgates. Junior India player Ajinderpal Singh who displayed speed and tremendous skill was the livewire of the attack. He scored two field goals in the 46th and 52nd minutes before converting a penalty corner in the 67th minute.

Marianos Ekka scored twice both through field goals in the 56th and 68th minutes. A minute before close Mukhtair Singh made it 9-0 to round off the tally.

TODAY'S RESULTS

Pool G: Gujarat bt Patiala 4-1

Pool C: Railways bt Vidarbha 9-0; BSF bt Hyderabad 2-1

Pool E: Tamil Nadu bt Madhya Bharat 7-1; Maharashtra drew with Central

Excise & Customs 1-1

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.