Champions Up and Running: Railways Edge Army 2-1 to Open Their Murugappa Title Defence
Champions don’t always sparkle in openers. They just win them.
Indian Railways began the defence of their Murugappa Gold Cup with a hard-earned 2-1 win over the Indian Army in Chennai, and for long stretches it was exactly the kind of awkward first game that trips up favourites. Lovepreet Singh’s 12th-minute penalty corner gave Railways the perfect start. Ankush wiped it out in the 28th. And for the next half hour, the Army made the champions work for everything.
The winner came in the 57th minute, Yogember Rawat finishing it, and you could feel the relief from here. Three points, top of Pool A, job done. Not pretty, but champions rarely care about pretty in week one.
This is a side chasing a fourth straight Murugappa title, and they know the drill by now: get through the group, peak for the knockouts. The Army, meanwhile, have one point from two games after Thursday’s 1-1 with Karnataka, and their margin for error is already gone.
The bigger picture
Railways’ machine doesn’t need to be beautiful in October. It needs to be running in November, when the semi-finals (31 October) and final (1 November) come around. On tonight’s evidence, it’s running. The Army made them earn it, which is probably the best thing that could have happened to the champions this early.
For our money, nobody wins this tournament without going through Railways. Tonight was the first reminder why.
Related: Murugappa Gold Cup 2026 preview, Murugappa Gold Cup Day 2 round-up, Live Centre.
