Former India forward Deepak Thakur showed some glimpses of his old touch, firing in five goals in defending champions Indian Oil's 8-1 thrashing of RCF Kapurthala in the Sahara 117th All-India Beighton Cup hockey tournament in Kolkata on Sunday.
In another quarter-final league match at the SAI artificial turf, South Central Railway came back from behind to pip Army XI 3-2 with goals from Mayank James (12nd), Dharmendra (25th) and Innocent Kullu (58th).
An own goal by South Central Railway in the 10th minute and another by Chandan Aind (16th) saw Army XI lead 2-1 but the former fought back through Dharmendra and Kullu's effort on both sides of the break.
In the group A quarter-final league, the defending champions began their campaign with a bang with former internationals Thakur (6th, 19th, 26th, 36th, 69th) and Prabhjot Singh (52nd and 60th) stealing the show while Sarabjit Singh (40th) slammed the board once.
A hapless RCF Kapurthala pulled one back through Karanpreet Singh's penalty corner conversion in the 45th minute.
Indian Oil and Punjab National Bank now have three points each from group A, while in group B Air India and qualifiers South Central share the lead with three each.
