The Hindu : Sport / Hockey : Prabhjot hat-trick takes IOC into semifinals

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Friday, Dec 30, 2005

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Sport - Hockey

Prabhjot hat-trick takes IOC into semifinals

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Prabhjot Singh came up with a hat-trick when his team, Indian Oil, looked to be struggling against a well-knit Army (Red) in the quarterfinals of the Nehru hockey tournament on Thursday.

Eventually, the Army men were left to rue their missed chances and forced to grumble against a few umpiring decisions as they went down 2-3 in an absorbing contest.

Punjab and Sind Bank had earlier joined the last-four line-up, getting the better of Air-India, Mumbai, also by a 3-2 margin.

In the semifinals on Friday, PSB will meet IOC while Indian Airlines will take on Namdhari XI.

In an acrimonious encounter in which umpiring decisions came in for criticism, Army XI could have prevailed over its better-rated rival but for failing to translate its overall superiority into goals.

On the other hand, Prabhjot, criticised for his misses in the recent Champions Trophy, missed some but scored three and that mattered the most in the end for Indian Oil.

In a four-minute spell at the beginning of the second half, Prabhjot had two, one off an indirect attempt from a penalty corner and the other after a one-two with Deepak Thakur. He had one more (3-1) midway through the session to put IOC seemingly in command, but Army came pressing.

A first-half scuffle, from which IOC goalkeeper Baljit Singh was lucky to get away without even a green card, set the pattern of umpiring. Sunil Ekka of Army and Gaurav Tokhi of IOC received the yellow cards. The umpires, though they missed a few real `culprits' did well to bring calm.

A minute earlier, umpire Varinder Singh had awarded a dubious penalty stroke to Army, which Suresh Kumar wasted, scooping high and wide. Skipper Dhananjay Mahadik, however, made no mistake with another `stroke' in the 59th minute to make it 2-3 after Elizer Lakra had scored the first Army goal in the 44th minute off a shot from Sunil Ekka.

Sunil Ekka shines

Sunil Ekka was the man again in the center of action as he slammed towards the goal with about six minutes left and found the ball ricochet off a defender's foot into the cage. Umpire G. S. Sanga, having blown for a penalty corner, was in no position to reverse the decision. The point was, had he delayed his whistle a fraction, Army would have had another tale to tell. Instead, Ekka, who protested, found himself out for a second time with another yellow card and his team managed nothing from the penalty corner.

Navpreet Singh scored a goal each off a penalty corner and a penalty stroke to help Punjab and Sind Bank get past Air India in the first quarterfinal of the day. His penalty stroke conversion that fetched the winner for the Jalandhar bank team came in the 63rd minute.

The opening PSB goal came from young Gurwinder Singh Chandi while Air India struck once each through Sanjay Yadav and Rajesh Chauhan, both following penalty corners.

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