Chennai, Jul 20 (IANS): After drawing their opening two games, Karnataka Hockey slid to a 2-3 defeat against CAG in a pool A match of the 89th MCC-Murugrappa Cup All-India hockey tournament here on Sunday.
Mohan Muthanna and P.N. Thimanna scored for Karnataka who did well to draw level after trailing 1-2. But CAG struck in the last minute through Navneet Swarnkar for the match-winner after Chandan Singh and Md Naeemuddin had put them in front.
Later, in two pool B matches, local challengers Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) opened their account with a 5-0 win over SAIL while Army XI drew 2-2 with Punjab and Sind.
Three goals by Vinod Rayer featured IOB's easy win while Hasan Basha added two more to the tally as the bankmen recorded their first success.
Trailing 1-2, PNB did well to to split points with Army XI for whom Rajnish Salaria and Siraju scored. PNB's response came from Pabhdeep Singh and Ramandeep Singh.