The Hindu : Sport : BPCL rides on Gurpreet’s goal

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Wednesday, Sep 26, 2007
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Sport - Sports : General

BPCL rides on Gurpreet’s goal

BANGALORE: Gurpreet Singh enhanced his growing reputation as a drag-flicker of note netting BPCL’s match-winner in the 45th minute of the super division hockey league tie against the formidable Fortis to keep the Petroleum lads’ unbeaten streak going at the KSHA Stadium here on Tuesday.

This was BPCL’s sixth straight win for a tally of 18 points, while Fortis has lost two of its six matches and has 10 points.

Fortis, a scratch combination of a few past internationals and some fringe players, did the early running and captain Sandeep Micheal did provide two stunning passes, but neither Damandeep Singh nor Pramod Kumar could deflect the ball on target.

With the ball swinging from one end to the other, the match did get a bit intense and both Sandeep and India captain, Dilip Tirkey, were cautioned by umpire Virendra Singh.

Early chances

With Sabu Verkey spraying passes at will, BPCL too had its early chances, but Amar Aiyamma just could not get the better of Jagdish Ponnappa in the goal.

However, off the second penalty corner that BPCL earned in the 45th minute, Gurpreet made no mistake as he flicked the ball to the right of the goalkeeper.

Earlier, Army Green trounced a hapless HAL 6-2.

S.P. Tirkey opened the goal spree with a brilliant on the run shot from left in the 15th minute before Anup Kullu sounded the boards off Greens’ first penalty corner.

Captain Jagdev Singh made it 3-0 by the 29th minute and HAL, winless thus far, was up against the wall, though Nagasreeni did reduced the margin with a penalty corner conversion before going into the break.

Changing ends, Greens’ forced the pace and within the next 23 minutes, it went 6-1 up through S.P. Irkey (48th), Souman Herenz (55th) and Rajesh Kumar (58th). Abhinav reduced the margin with another penalty corner conversion for HAL.

Greens has 10 points from seven outings (three wins and a draw), while HAL crashed to its sixth straight defeat.

Raj Kumar on song

D. Raj Kumar cruised through to two emphatic victories in the senior State-ranking billiards championship at the KSBA hall here on Tuesday.

The southpaw first humbled the challenge from Francis Joe in straight frames at 150-19, 150-22, 150-71 and then came back in the afternoon to inflict a 150-0, 150-55, 47-150, 150-113 win over V.K. Sadarangani.

Balaji Reddy posted his second win in the junior billiards (three hour duration) semifinal league. Having downed Mundir Sherazi convincingly on Monday, Balaji looked in ominous form to shut out Mohd. Ali 630-432. Amit Bhushan who had lost to Ali on Monday bounced back into contention with a 712-510 win over Mundir.

The results: Senior Billiards League (Best of 5-150 points): Balaji Reddy bt V.K. Sadarangani 151-139, 153-95, 150-149; D. Raj Kumar bt Francis Joe 150-19, 150-22, 150-71; Duncan Mackenzie bt Sohail Jairaj 150-71, 151-79, 151-23; Arvind Savur bt B.S. Suresh 152-91, 151-35 (B-66), 151-27; B.V. Srinivas Murthy bt Nadeem Azeez 150-97, 150 (B-65)-70, 151-67; D. Raj Kumar bt V.K. Sadarangani 150-0, 150-55, 47-150, 150-113; B. Bhaskar bt M. Lakshman 150-24 (B-97), 151-30, 151-16 (B-64).

Juniors (Semifinal league — 3 hours duration): Amit Bhushan bt Mundir Sherazi 712–510; Balaji Reddy bt Mohd. Ali 630–432.

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