The Hindu : Sport / Hockey : Punjab Police, BSF enter last four

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Monday, Apr 11, 2005

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Sport - Hockey

Punjab Police, BSF enter last four

By Our Special Correspondent

KOLKATA, APRIL 10. Former champion Border Security Force (BSF) and Punjab Police entered the semifinals in contrasting styles in the Indian Oil all-India 110th Beighton Cup here on Sunday.

BSF, which won and drew a match in the earlier rounds of the Group A league, quelled a spirited Karnataka XI 2-1 in the final round match to emerge group champion with seven points.

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), which had completed its engagements on Saturday, was thus pushed to the runner-up spot in the same group with five points.

Corps of Signal (2 points) and Karnataka (1 point) thus crashed out of the meet.

The group B action saw last year's runner-up Army XI downing Punjab Police 2-0. While Army netted the full quota of points with an all-win record, the remaining teams in the group — Bombay XI, Tamil Nadu XI and Punjab Police — were locked in a three-way tie with three points each.

But Punjab Police with a better goal difference — six goals in favour and two against — beat the rest of the field to annex the second semifinal berth.

The knock-out semifinals on Monday will have Army XI taking on IOC while BSF faces Punjab Police in the other match.

BSF took the initiative in the first quarter when Marunis Lakra scored an opportunistic goal in the ninth minute.

Karnataka had the first chance to move ahead but Mayur Subbiah failed to score from a fourth minute penalty stroke. BSF doubled the lead just before the interval when Ranjit Singh struck in the 34th minute.

Karnataka reduced the margin in the third quarter as Ronald Kiran scored the team's fifth penalty corner. Karnataka faded out thereafter and BSF hung on to the slender lead for the rest of the match.

In the second match of the day, Army's Elizer Lakra found the target in the very first minute.

The remaining part of the action had Punjab Police, which earned three penalty corners, going all out for the equaliser while the army men defended. The last year's runner-up struck again just before the final whistle as Jagjit Singh converted a miscued clearance by a Police defender to make it 2-0.

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