The Hindu : Sport / Hockey : Bharat Petroleum, Air-India in semifinals

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Tuesday, Mar 13, 2007
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Bharat Petroleum, Air-India in semifinals

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Bharat Petroleum and Air-India played a 4-4 draw and kept out Punjab and Sind Bank from the semifinals of the third all-India Oriental Bank Maharaja Ranjit Singh hockey tournament at the Shivaji Stadium here on Monday.

Both Bharat Petroleum and Air-India wound up their quarterfinal league engagements with four points each, and identical goal difference of two. Since they had scored same number of goals as well, a tie-break was enacted to grade the teams in the group. Bharat Petroleum won the tie-break 4-2 to top the group.

In the semifinals to be played on Tuesday, Indian Oil will meet Air-India while Bharat Petroleum will be challenged by Namdhari XI.

Amar Aiyamma and Hari Prasad scored a goal each in the first 20 minutes to gain a 2-0 lead for Bharat Petroleum. However, Air-India was equal to the task, as it narrowed the gap to 1-2 in the first half itself with a goal from Joga Singh.

Equaliser

On resumption, Sanjay Yadav equalised for Air-India and he was instrumental eventually in helping the team take a 4-3 lead, after Len Aiyappa had converted a penalty stroke in collecting the other goal for the team.

Hari Prasad scored his second goal while capitalising on a classic move from Sabu Varkey for 3-2 and Amar Aiyamma grabbed the 4-4 equaliser to keep the team's chances of a knock-out berth alive.

If one of the teams had lost, Punjab and Sind Bank would have qualified with three points and a better goal difference. In the event, National champion Punjab and Sind Bank's 7-2 triumph over Punjab Naitonal Bank earlier in the afternoon, proved a futile exercise.

Sarvanjit Singh jr. struck four goals while Gurvinder Singh Chandi jr. (2) and Sandeep Singh accounted for the other goals for Punjab and Sind Bank which got off the blocks briskly and established a firm control over the proceedings with a 5-0 lead at halftime.

Jatinder Saroha scored two goals to save the blushes for Punjab National Bank which had started its campaign well in the quarterfinal league with a 1-1 draw against Air India but could not sustain the good work thereafter.

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