Defending champions Indian Oil defeated former champions Army XI 4-2 in a Pool A league game before both progressed to the quarter-finals of the 53rd All India Bombay Gold Cup hockey championship here Thursday.

Also through to the last eight were Mumbai Hockey Association Lted (MHAL) XI who shocked Rail Coach Factory (RCF), Kapurthala, 3-2 in Pool D, and Central Railway who defeated Killedar XI 7-3 to record their first win in Pool C.

Indian Oil produced another slick performance against the tough Army XI at the MHAL-Mahindra Stadium.

Armaan Qureshi and Bharat Chhikara scored a brace of goals for Indian Oil, while Army XI fought back and scored through David Dung Dung and Gurpreet Singh.

With this their second win in the pool, Indian Oil finished in first position ahead of Army XI, who had defeated Bombay Republicans, the third team in the pool.

In the MHAL XI stunner against RCF, Sadiq Mohammad (8th minute), Raj Patil (12th minute) and Manjinder Singh (45th minute) scored a goal each for the Mumbai side, while the losers scored through Hira Singh (4th minute) and Amit Kumar (40th minute).

MHAL meet Uttar Pradesh XI in the concluding pool match on Friday and are assured of qualification to the quarter-finals irrespective of the outcome of this match.

UP XI and RCF had drawn 2-2 in the earlier league match so UP need only a draw to advance to the next round.

South Central Railway, who had beaten Central Railway 1-0 Wednesday, will meet Army XI in the last eight, while Central Railway will take on Indian Oil.

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