Dhanraj Pillay (left) and Leslie Claudius during the Beighton Cup match at the CC&FC on Tuesday. Picture by Santosh Ghosh

Calcutta: Legendary Dhanraj Pillay’s made his debut in the Beighton Cup on Tuesday, when he turned out for Indian Airlines against Karnataka XI in the Indian Oil-sponsored 111th edition of the meet at the CC&FC. Pillay’s men won 3-1.

Pillay didn’t look in prime form, but his stickwork on few occasions made the proceedings worth watching. It was a scrappy starts for both the outfits as there were lots of miss passes and the players even failed to control the ball.

Playing on grass seems to be a headache for both and even Indian Airlines captain Sameer Dad rued that the playing on natural turf creates lot of problems.

“This is the only tournament that we play on natural turf,” said Dad, an Olympian and a World Cupper. Dad represented India in the 2000 Sydney Olympics and in the 1998 Utrecht World Cup.

Indian Airlines went ahead in the 26th minute when Lazarus Barla converted from a penalty corner. Two minutes later the equaliser came off a penalty-corner conversion by Chetan Krishna.

In the 45th minute Pillay struck. The striker though looked rusty, that didn’t prevent him from giving his team the much-needed lead. A cross from the right flank, found Airlines’ Jalwinder Singh in the D. Jalwinder relayed it to his captain Dad whose flick found an unmarked Pillay in front of the goal, who sounded the board to make it 2-1 for the much-hyped men.

The Karnataka team were trying hard to come back into the game but an illegal tackle by their goalkeeper Arun Babu on Dilbagh Singh in the 60th minute earned a penalty stroke for the Airlines outfit. Birender Lakra scored from the hot spot.

Dad said that it was a good start for his team in this century-old tournament and this time they are hopeful of winning it. Airlines didn’t field a team in the last edition.

Dad criticised the Indian Hockey Federation (IHF) and said the players are suffering under its ham-handed ways.

“The PHL was not managed well this time and it turned out to be a flop show. Sponsors took the initiative and invested money, but no one knows where the money goes. What we get is equal to what cricketers pay as tips in hotels,” rued Dad.

Meanwhile, in other quarter final league matches BSF (Jalandhar) and Punjab and Sind Bank both registered victories.

Riding on Habil Topno and Ranjit Singh’s strike, BSF defeated CESC by a brace while Punjab and Sind Bank trounced Punjab Police 3-0. Parminder Singh scored a brace and Baljit Singh completed the tally.

The semi-finals of the tournament will be played on Sunday and not on Friday as scheduled earlier.