The Hindu : ONGC shoots out Tamil Nadu

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 17, 2002

Sport

Sport - Hockey

ONGC shoots out Tamil Nadu

By Our Hockey Correspondent

Karnataka 4     Railways   0
                                           
 ONGC        2 (3) Tamil Nadu 2 (1)

Sunil Ekka scores Karnataka's third goal past Railways' goalkeeper Sandeep Kumar as referee Satinder Sharma looks on in the all-India MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup hockey tournament in Chennai on Tuesday.

CHENNAI JULY 16. The hockey on view was brisk, bright in patches and provided a fairly interesting fare to the large gathering in the quarterfinals of the Madras Cricket Club-Murugappa Gold Cup tournament at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium this evening.

While Karnataka underscored the charm and grace of competitive hockey effectively overwhelming Indian Railways, the home team, Tamil Nadu, made heavy weather of the contest against Oil and Natural Gas Commission, stretched it into the golden goal phase and into the realm of the unknown-tie breaker.

Finally, much to chagrin of the supporters, Tamil Nadu capitulated 1-3 in the tie-breaker. The scoreline was 2-2 when the tie-breaker was enforced, and ONGC had the last laugh when Nasir stamped the winning push. Karnataka takes on ONGC in the semifinals on Friday.

If Tamil Nadu had entertained any illusion of dominating after the first-minute goal from a perfect penalty corner by Padmanaban, later events showed how erroneous such a line of thinking was.

Not only did ONGC hit back with a superb backhander from Amardeep Pratap but maintained a fairly firm grip over the proceedings.

Fahad and Prabhakar broke through repeatedly causing anxious moments to Tamil Nadu defence where the work of Padmanaban was not beyond reproach.

Tamil Nadu did enjoy territorial advantage thanks to the neat promptings of Radhakrishnan and Tirumal from the mid-field. In the frontline, Gopinath worked hard as did Venkatesh on the wing.

It was a fine effort by Venkatesh off a long pass from Tirumal that put Tamil Nadu ahead for the second time in the match.

But within minutes on resumption, ONGC equalised making the best of a penalty corner skirmish. Fahad managed to flick the ball home.

Tamil Nadu's attempts at the goal suffered from over elaboration, particularly from Arumugam and Gopinath. Credit also should go to the ONGC goal-keeper Kanwaldeep Singh, who effected a few timely saves. At least, one from Venkatesh in the closing minutes of the first half deserves special mention.

The ONGC zone came under sustained pressure in the last quarter, but the defence smothered it with assurance. The focus again was goal-keeper, Kanwaldeep Singh.

There were specks of rough play but firm handling by umpire Shakeel Quereshi nipped trouble in the bud. Vinod Kumar gained a yellow and in the second half ONGC's Amjad Khan came in for the same punishment.

In the tie-breaker, Prabhakar, Amit Kumar and Nasir scored for ONGC, while Alfred Asir scored for Tamil Nadu.

An amalgam of adeptness and athleticism gave Karnataka that classic touch against a formidable combination like Railways, the finalist last year.

Two goals in each half underlined the consistency and conformity to a pattern that saw refreshing touches of elegance and effective finish. Still, with a bit more luck, it could have been a tennis score for Karnataka.

Interestingly, Railways secured as many as 11 penalty corners but showed no measure of ingenuity to overcome the resistance under the bar by Bharat Chettri. Some of Chettri's saves were splendid.

It would be invidious to identify an individual in the frontline for accolades. Almost everyone contributed his quota of good work.

But the cynosure was Sandeep Michael, the architect of most of Karnataka's crisp and clean sallies.

With Cyprian Aind, he formed a deadly combination. It was one such devastating raid in the early minutes that put Karnataka ahead. Cyprian gave the finish to the move but the ball rolled in despite the desperate trapping on the goal-line by Dickson.

Another player who did excellent work was Ignace Tirkey. More than once his rasping shots hit the post and spun back.

Late in the match, he gave an astute pass for Sunil Ekka to hoist the third goal.

The second for Karnataka came off a neat penalty corner hit by Ronald Kiran. In the final minutes, Sunil Ekka scored again off a cross from Somanna.

Any appreciation of Karnataka's overwhelming show would be incomplete without an adequate tribute to the role played from the mid-field by Arjun Halappa.

Perfect and precise in passing, he kept the Karnataka attack on its toes. It is a pity that such a skilful player as Arjun Halappa is out of the national squad. One hopes, he comes back into the reckoning again shortly.

It is not easy to comprehend how a team that could force as many as 10 penalty corners could go out score-less in a crucial match.

The attack was vibrant thanks to the quick moves by Iqbal Singh and Suleman. A couple of attempts by Chander Pal and Bikramjit Singh in penalty corners evoked some threat to the Karnataka goal but nothing on this day could have passed the energetic Bharat Chettri.

Wednesday's matches (quarterfinals): Indian Oil Corporation v IHF Juniors (2-15 p.m.); Indian Airlines v Bengal (4-15 p.m.)

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