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Hockey
By Our Special Correspondent
Earlier, Tamil Nadu XI, down 0-2 and 1-3 brought off a memorable 5-4 victory over Air India to also make the last-four stage. Indian Airlines could not convert its overall dominance into goals. Ten penalty corners, six of them in the second half, underlined Airlines' supremacy in attacks. But the thrusts were slow and much of the time they were predictable. On its part, the BSF defence stood firm till, in the closing stages, it conceded a crucial free hit just outside the top of the `D', that led to the opening Airlines goal, and a penalty stroke that helped the rival sew up the match. The free hit was sent goalward by Bimal Lakra and Hari Prasad got a touch to it as the ball sped its way through a maze of legs. Five minutes later, Hari Prasad sent Samir Dad away on the left and as he received the return pass inside the `D', right in front of the goal, defender Raj Singh stick-checked him to concede the penalty stroke. Arjun Halappa, who caught attention with a few dribbles and quick turns, converted the `stroke' to make it 2-0. The Mukesh Kumar-Dhanraj Pillay combination was not so successful for Airlines this day. Both were slow in their build-ups and the tight marking BSF defence upset their rhythm easily. Mukesh was rested in the second half while Dhanraj somehow could not get going mainly because of the lack of support. To play the role of a playmaker and principal scorer is after all not so easy. Off the penalty corners that Airlines wasted, Dilip Tirkey was blocked thrice, twice by goalkeeper Jasjit Singh and once by the onrushing defenders. The other full back, Lazrus Barla was thwarted once by Jasjit and on another occasion he shot wide. Indirect variations were resorted to by Airlines with the other awards, but the timing was mostly awry. BSF depended mainly on Sushil Kujur, Marianus Lakra and Habil Topno in attack with Harbhajan doing the bulk of the work in the midfield. The Jalandhar team had just two penalty corners, one on either side of the interval and a couple of other openings. L. Prabhakaran was the hero for Tamil Nadu XI as it brought Air India crashing down. The captain was the key figure in attack, but lent support to the midfield as well in containing the Air India thrusts and mounting counter attacks. He scored one goal, the last equaliser for Tamil Nadu (4-4) and earned the penalty stroke that set the ball rolling for his team's comeback, a minute from the interval. Air India was off to a flying start. Jitender Saroha put the Mumbai team ahead in the eighth minute following the first penalty corner and then Dulla Singh widened the margin in the 27th minute. Jagan Senthil converted the Prabhakaran-earned penalty stroke but four minutes after the break, Tamil Nadu found itself down again, this time Devinder Kumar finding the mark. Arumugam and Radhakrishnan (Sr), the latter off a penalty stroke, brought Tamil Nadu level before Surinder Kundu converted a penalty stroke to put Air India in front again. With time running out, Tamil Nadu put everything into the attack and following the fifth penalty corner, Prabhakaran brought a huge sigh of relief in the TN camp, by scoring to make it 4-4. A minute from the end, Arumugam scored the winner to the delight of his TN team-mates.
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