The Hindu : Punjab Police retains title

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 26, 2003

Sport

Sport - Hockey

Punjab Police retains title

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI NOV. 25. Punjab Police pumped in three penalty-corners in the last 15 minutes to deal a severe blow to Indian Airlines' reputation and, in the process, retained the Nehru hockey trophy, at the Shivaji Stadium here on Tuesday.

Both the teams having played rather listlessly in the first half of the final, a 3-0 margin was beyond anyone's imagination.

But Baljit Singh Dhillon made that scoreline possible, laying the return pass for the `pusher', his brother Daljeet Singh Dhillon, for the first goal off the fourth penalty corner that his team earned, and then slotting in the next two.

If the set-piece ploy took the Airlines defence and goalkeeper A. B. Subbaiah by surprise for police's first goal, Baljit Dhillon's direct attempt, off the next, beat the goalkeeper in the air to find the inside of the bar before bouncing home.

The third was a simpler effort, all along the carpet, that left the defence gaping and the goalkeeper clueless.

The typical Airlines prodigality was much in evidence as Dhanraj Pillay, in one great spell early in the second half, tore the rival defence apart only to see the chances being squandered. He had a dribble that cut a long path into the middle of the circle, but Mukesh Kumar could not cash in. Then there was a cross on a counter attack that screamed across with Arjun Halappa and Samir Dad watching helplessly.

Dhanraj was not through yet. He laid another brilliant pass from the right to see V. S. Vinay missing connection from close. Also on hand were Dad and Hari Prasad. Dhanraj limped off shortly after that, taking a ball on his foot, came back after the Airlines goal fell, and then contributed one more defence-splitting pass, with Mukesh bungling again.

Punjab Police, playing without an injured Tejbir Singh, was not all that cohesive in the frontline, but forced the penalty corners that mattered. Gagan Ajit Singh, shifting from wing to wing, and occasionally coming into the middle, was closely marked, though he did break through a couple of times. Baljit Dhillon did the bulk of the scheming for the police team, and as it turned out later, scoring, too.

It was Gagan who earned the third penalty corner for his team that led to another from which Daljeet scored. Once Airlines went two down, it seemed to have accepted the inevitability.

Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) took the third place earlier, beating Tamil Nadu XI 3-2. All the goals came in the first half. Len Aiyappa and Ajay Saroha (2) scored off penalty corners for BPCL while Prabhakaran got in both the goals for the loser.

The Pepsi penalty corner award went to BPCL, the ONGC fairplay trophy to Tamil Nadu XI, and the Sardar Daljit Singh Trophy for the `most promising team' to Indian Oil.

The winner, Punjab Police, received a cheque of Rs. 2.5 lakhs, while Indian Airlines got Rs. 1.5 lakh. BPCL took home Rs. 1 lakh for the third place. Punjab Police won the trophy for the sixth time. For the second year in succession, Indian Airlines had to be satisfied with the runner-up spot. It last won the trophy in 1993.

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