The Hindu : Sport / Hockey : IOC to meet PSB in final

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Wednesday, Mar 30, 2005

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Sport - Hockey

IOC to meet PSB in final

By V.V. Subrahmanyam

HYDERABAD, MARCH 29. Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Punjab & Sind Bank (PSB) entered the final of the 61st Senior National hockey championship for Rangaswamy Cup at Gachibowli Complex here on Tuesday.

IOC defeated defending champion Indian Airlines 4-1, while Punjab & Sind Bank put it across eight-time champion Services 2-1 in the semifinals.

Deepak Thakur and Prabhjot Singh repeatedly attacked the Airlines' territory, while Humja Mujtaba and Inder Singh Salaria gave them good support from the half-line.

And it was quite appalling to see the famed Airlines forward-line of Dhanraj Pillay, Arjun Halappa and Brojen Singh struggling to penetrate into the rival `D'. "Everything went wrong for us," said Airlines coach Ashok Kumar.

IOC dominated in all departments of the game from the beginning. And the wily Deepak Thakur put IOC ahead in the very second minute. Even before the Airlines could recover from the early blow, Prabhjot Singh scored the second goal latching on to a lovely cross from Deepak Thakur from the right.

However, Airlines launched a couple of good counter-attacks but lost control of the ball outside the `D'. Not even the experience of Pillay and the speed of Arjun Halappa could change its fortunes. And credit should be given to the efficacy of Viren Rasquinha who brought off fine clearances, particularly during penalty corners in the first session and also of the six in the second-half. That Pillay scored the only goal off an indirect penalty-corner hit in the 52nd minute was a clear reflection of the failure of the Airlines on the field.

Compounding its woes, Arjun Halappa messed up a penalty-stroke in the 12th minute when the team was trailing 0-2. "That was crucial for us. Things could have been different if he had scored then," said Ashok Kumar. More significantly, Dhanraj was rested for more than 10 minutes in each of the two sessions as Ashok Kumar tried different combinations in order to breach the solid IOC defence. No wonder, Airlines felt the absence of India captain and injured Dilip Tirkey very badly.

IOC scored the third goal, thanks to yet another splendid effort of Deepak Thakur who picked up a lovely cross from the left by Kamlesh Kumar Singh in the 27th minute.

At half-time, IOC led 3-0.

On resumption, there was a sense of urgency in Airlines camp and it forced six penalty-corners. The early phase of this session saw Kushmit Singh (IOC) and Brojen Singh (Airlines) shown yellow cards for rough play. This was when Samir Dad was working in tandem with Bimal Lakra and earned quite a few penalty-corners. One of them was converted by Pillay with an indirect hit in the 52nd minute.

There were two more instances when Samir Dad threatened to score but on both occasions he was thwarted by goalkeeper Devesh Chauhan. However, IOC scored again when Prabhjot Singh deflected another perfect center from the left by Humza Mujtaba to seal the Airlines' fate in the 55th minute.

Another upset

In the second semifinal, Punjab & Sind Bank shocked eight-time champion Services 2-1. Though it was the latter which shot into lead in the very second minute when Chandrasekhar Xalxo saw his penalty-corner hit bounce into the goal off the custodian Manender Singh's pads, it was the Bankmen who dominated the proceedings for the rest of the match. The forward-line of Kulvender Singh, Ravi Paul and Ajitpal Singh worked in tandem to keep the rival defence guessing.

A series of counter-attacks spearheaded by veteran Baljit Sigh Saini on the right flank saw PSB gain upper hand. But PSB players were a disappointed lot when referee Shakeel Ahmed Qureshi disallowed what they claimed to be a clear goal when Gurvinder Singh deflected a perfect center from the right by Baljit.

But Suresh Kumar was the pick of the Services forward-line with his wonderful stick work. The reassuring touch of Avtar Singh added solidity to the Services attack but the forward-line was not given any freedom as the match progressed. And once PSB scored the equaliser in the 43rd minute when Navpreet Singh's penalty-corner hit deflected off the goalkeeper's tick into the goal to the delight of his team-mates, it turned out to be a largely one-sided affair.

A series of counter-attacks by Kulvender Singh, who made couple of forays into the striking zone only to be thwarted by the alert custodian P.T. Rao, sustained the pressure on Services' defence. And not surprisingly, the match-winner came in the 55th minute. Of the sixth penalty-corner it earned, PSB confused the entire rival defence in a set piece in which Saranjit Singh acted as a decoy by just pushing the ball to the waiting Navpreet Singh who made no mistake with his drag flick to seal Services' fate.

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