Tatas began with a flourish and took the lead in the 18th minute through a field goal by Amjad Khan. They looked satisfield with this slender lead and maintained it till the breather.

It was after the lead, especially in the second-half, that MPT woke up from their slumber and gave a fine display of teamwork. Their defence looked sound, the halves were good in both attack and defence and their forwards had the Tata rearguard on their toes.

MPT had a fine opportunity to neutralise the lead when they were awarded a "stroke". But unfortunately for them Mumtaz Ahmed had the mortification of wasting the golden opportunity for them.

Nevertheless, MPT did not lose heart after this miss and kept up their good work. It was through another "stroke" that they restored parity. This time,Abhijit Shirsat made no mistake to make it 1-1.

Just when it looked as though the match would go into the tie-breaker, seasoned campaigners Tatas came up with the match-winner. Amjad Khan netted three minutes from the close.

In the other quarter-final encounter, Maharashtra State Police defeated Union Bank of India 4-2 after leading 1-0 at half-time.

Prakash Sakpal, the prolific scorer for MS Police, netted the first two goals. Anklesh Yesur and Kamlakar Gaikwad were the other goal-getters for the cops.

UBI did not give in easily. They hit back through goals by Stanley Thomas and Balbinder Singh, both the goals coming off penalty-corners.