Murugappa Day 7: Ten Goals in the BPCL-Navy Classic, Tamil Nadu Finally Win, and IOCL and Army Share Four
Ten goals in the first game of the day, and the rest of Wednesday in Chennai never really calmed down. BPCL and Indian Navy shared a 5-5 draw that settled the top of Pool B, Tamil Nadu finally got their first win of the tournament, and IOCL and Indian Army could not be separated either.
Start with the big one. BPCL against Navy was billed as the day’s best game, and it delivered all of it. Charanjeet Singh scored twice for BPCL, with Varun Kumar, Anmol Ekka and Sudeep Chirmako getting one each. Navy answered every time: Pawan Rajbhar scored twice, and Sushil Dhanwar, Rajat Sharma and Rajat Minz got the others. Five each, and neither side blinked.
The point suits BPCL just fine. It takes them to ten points from four games, and nobody left in Pool B can catch them now. Navy’s one remaining game, against Malaysia, can only take them to eight. So BPCL finish top of the pool and go into the semi-finals as the side everyone else wants to avoid. They’ve scored 17 goals in four games and conceded ten, which tells you exactly what kind of team they are: brilliant going forward, and beatable if you get at them. Navy, for their part, are still unbeaten, and five points from three games leaves them second in the pool with that Malaysia game still to come. A draw there is enough to see them through.
The middle game belonged to the hosts. Tamil Nadu beat Malaysia’s juniors 4-2, and it was their first win after two draws and a defeat. It was done early, too. Pruthvi G M put Tamil Nadu ahead from a penalty corner in the 14th minute, Salihe Muhammad levelled for Malaysia a minute later, and then Tamil Nadu scored twice more before half-time through Yojin Minz and Patras Tirkey. That made it 3-1 at the break, and when Minz got his second in the 47th minute the game was gone. Karthikesan Shivamoorthy pulled one back for Malaysia from a corner right at the death, but it was only ever a consolation.
For Malaysia, that’s a tough one to take. They’d won on Tuesday against SAI-NCOE, and this was the game that would have put them on six points and right in the semi-final hunt. Instead they stay on three from three games, and their last pool game, against Navy, is now win-or-bust with nothing guaranteed even then. It’s been a brutal week for this young side. They only arrived in Chennai on Sunday, the day after winning the Sultan of Johor Cup final in Malaysia on Saturday night, and the legs have looked heavier with every game.
The night game finished 2-2 as well, and it followed a familiar script for IOCL. Sunil Yadav put them ahead from a penalty stroke in the 29th minute, Cyril Lugun levelled from a corner a minute later, and Jobanpreet Singh’s stroke in the 43rd minute had Army in front. Uthappa SK rescued a point for IOCL in the 49th minute. That’s two draws in a row for IOCL after Tuesday’s last-gasp 2-2 with Karnataka, and both times they’ve had to come from behind late. Gutsy, but it leaves them on three points from four games, and their pool campaign is done.
Army will take the point and the position that comes with it. They’re second in Pool A on five points, behind Railways on nine, with Karnataka and IOCL both on three and PNB on two. The last Pool A game still to play is Railways against PNB, and the semi-finals are on 31 October with the final on 1 November. In Pool B, only Navy against Malaysia is left to play. By the time those two games are done, the last-four picture will be complete, and on Wednesday’s evidence the team nobody will want in their semi-final is BPCL.
Related links:
- https://sportscursor.com/murugappa-gold-cup-day-7-preview-bpcl-navy-malaysia-tamil-nadu-iocl-army-28-october-2026/
- https://sportscursor.com/murugappa-malaysia-juniors-2-1-sai-ncoe-bhopal-28-october-2026/
- https://sportscursor.com/murugappa-gold-cup-day-5-full-wrap-army-six-railways-bpcl-27-october-2026/
- https://sportscursor.com/latest-news/
- https://sportscursor.com/live/
