Chennai, Oct 3 (IANS) Following their rousing performance against Air India in the All-India MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup hockey tournament Friday night, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) swept to their second win in pool A by defeating the young and inexperienced Karnataka XI 3-1 here Saturday.
While Karnataka slid to their first defeat in two matches, ONGC moved a step closer to the semi-finals as goals by Sandeep Antil (16th minute), Bikash Toppo (20th) and Jagwant scored to give them a 3-0 lead by the break.

Karnataka, who had split points with Indian Overseas Bank with a 2-2 draw in their first match, showed some spark on resumption to reduce the leeway through Deepak Bijwad in the 59th minute, but the experienced ONGC managed nurse the lead to the finish.

Also chalking up their second win were Army XI, who overcame Punjab National Bank 3-1 in pool B, but had to work hard for the success.

Goals by Rajesh Kumar (5th) and Armugam (13th) put Army in the clear and they appeared poised for a runaway win. But Bruno Lagoon pulled one back for PNB with a 48th minute before Mundu scored an insurance goal for Army in the 62nd minute.

Meanwhile, Mumbai XI slipped to their second defeat in pool B as they lost 0-2 to the Indian Railways and are virtually out of the tournament.

Innocent Kullu (10th) and Ejaz Qureshi (51st) scored for the Railways, who picked up their first points from two matches, having lost to Army XI in the opening game.