Petroleum Sports Promotion Board dominated in its 3-0 win against Chandigarh in the quarterfinals of the eighth National hockey championships here on Thursday, but it was less than satisfying for a heavyweight squad that, on paper, is unquestionably the strongest in the competition.
With almost the entire line-up boasting of international experience — seven of them part of the current national core group — PSPB was expected to cruise home. Instead, it stuttered and slipped, missing chances by the dozen and unable to find the target either through penalty corners or in open play.
Despite the match largely being confined to the Chandigarh half, the scoreline does not reflect that.
V.R. Raghunath and Gurjinder Singh missed a total of six penalty corners between them, one of them coming off the upright, trying to experiment with variations. Affan Yousuf, Simranjit Singh, Talwinder Singh, and Tushar Khandker were all found wanting in their position play and deflections near the goal as the ball kept rolling away harmlessly, even though they did manage to earn PCs.
It took a diving Harjeet Singh to deflect home in the 13th minute before Gurjinder scored twice in the third quarter. At the other end, Chandigarh goalkeeper Harjit Singh stood tall, fending off every shot that came his way including five PCs. But the one who impressed most was the wiry Amandeep, with a registered age of 15 and only a class X student, running circles around a PSPB defence.
The Chandigarh striker dodged, tricked and weaved through defenders repeatedly with disdain but was only let down by lack of support.
Air India managed to reach the last four with a 3-2 struggle against Odisha, surviving mostly on experience and luck against a younger and fitter team, all three goals coming off PCs courtesy Mohd. Faraz.
In the morning, defending champion Railways managed to get past Punjab & Sind Bank yet again, in a repeat of last year’s final, winning 2-1 while Punjab edged past Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG) in a shootout after the teams were locked 1-1 at the end of regulation time.
The results (quarterfinals):
Railways 2 (Sheshe Gowda, Karanpal Singh) bt PSB 1 (Geet Kumar). Punjab 1 (Varinder Singh) bt CAG 1 (Mithilesh Kumar) in shootouts; Air India 3 (Mohd. Faraz 3) bt Odisha 2 (Nilam Sanjip Xess, Ashok Lakra); PSPB 3 (Gurjinder Singh 2, Harjeet Singh) bt Chandigarh 0 .
