Chasing General Insurance's total of 212 for seven in the allotted 45 overs, New India were off to a splendid start with openers Sameer Samant (68, 9x4) and Varadachari Madhavan (79, 7x4) realising 115 runs, but then lost wickets at regular intervals before scampering home with four wickets and five balls to spare.

Brief scores

Oriental 138 in 37.3 overs (R Kaushal 59, S Kar 3-17) lost to United India 139-5 in 22 overs (B Ramprakash 38, K Kotian 30 n.o.; V Kini 4-38) MoM: B Ramprakash.

GIC 212-7 in 45 overs (Chetan Shukla 55, Jairaj Chitnis 56, Leslie Mathias 41) lost to NIA 214-6 in 44.1 overs (Sameer Samant 68, Vardachari Madhavan 79, Shekhar 39). MoM: Vardachari Madhavan.

Points position: New India Assurance, United India andOriental 8 each, General Insurance 4, National 0.

CRMD rout SBI

State Bank of India suffered their third consecutive huge defeat, when they went down 0-8 to Central Railway Mumbai Division (CRMD) in the Punjab National Bank-sponsored BHA Senior Division hockey league at the Khalsa College ground, Matunga, today.

SBI had lost in their earlier outings to Union Bank 1-9 and Central Bank 0-9. They have so far conceded 27 goals in three matches and have scored just one.

Predicted as a one-sided affair, SBI held CRMD goalless for the first 14 minutes as the latter's forwards took time to settle down. The floodgates were opened by Sayyed Javed in the 14th minute. Javed struck again within a minute and both his goals were fine field ones. Thereafter CRMD went on a scoring spree and were up 4-0 at the breather. The other goal-getters for CRMD were Edwin Moti (2), Aldrin Bird (2), Amrik Singh and Vijay Kumar.