Each one of Indian Railways’ seven penalty corners against BPCL turned out to be duds in the semifinals of the 90th All-India MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup hockey tournament here on Saturday.
And with seconds remaining for the hooter, Railways earned its eighth and last penalty corner. For those who had watched Railways mess up the earlier chances, this one didn’t inspire a wee bit of confidence. A shoot-out looked the only possible outcome, with the scores tied 2-2 then.
But Railways’ skipper Gurpreet Singh’s drag flick sounded the boards for a sensational come-from-behind 3-2 and a place in the final of the tournament after a decade.
Earlier, defending champion IOC overcame ONGC 4-2 in a lacklustre first semifinal of the day. It was the Railways-BPCL clash that made the day for those who had thronged the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium.
Without a doubt, BPCL looked the better team in the first session. Its forwards showed purpose with S.V. Sunil, Amir Khan and Lalit Kumar making repeated raids. Few minutes into the first session, Amir Khan’s grounder gave BPCL the lead. The second goal for BPCL was well-conceived. Tushar Khandekar, the schemer, pushed one from the middle. Once Sunil trapped it, he weaved past two defenders, and bent down to shoot a backhander home.
Railways found its mojo in the second session. If Railways had to thank anybody other than Gurpreet, it has to be Affan Yousuf. The forward was tireless and was the one who was creating havoc in the circle with his speed and anticipation. His backhander from the top of the circle hit the board, without touching a sea of defenders.
Stanli Minz deflected home a powerful sweep by Jasjit Singh for the equaliser thereby setting the stage for Gurpreet.
The IOC-ONGC clash was slow-paced with the forwards of both teams lacking in speed and imagination.
IOC took the lead early through Deepak Thakur. A good one-two from the right from S.K. Uthappa and Roshan Minz saw the latter’s cross being deflected home by Uthappa.
IOC made it 2-0 through Raghunath’s penalty corner conversion.
ONGC’s forwards, who came a cropper in the first half, struck in the second through Mandeep Antil and Gurvinder Chandi.
Mandeep reduced the margin by pushing one to the roof of the net in a counter-attack. IOC attacked relentlessly but ONGC equalised thanks to a poor clearance by Raghunath.
Gurvinder made the most of it by unleashing a forehander home from the top of the circle.
What ONGC dreaded came true as Raghunath got another chance for a penalty corner. This time, he didn’t go for the usual drag flick. The push was received by Vikram Kanth instead of Raghunath which took ONGC by surprise. Vikram then passed it back to Raghunath who inched forward to slot it home.
One of IOC’s several counter-attack saw Sanjay use his speed to unleash a backhander to make it 4-2.
The results (Semifinals): Indian Railways 3 (Affan Yousuf 43, Stanli Minz 54, Gurpreet Singh 70) bt BPCL 2 (Amir Khan 2, S.V. Sunil 21); IOC 4 (Deepak Thakur 4, V.R. Raghunath 25 & 53, Sanjay 58) bt ONGC 2 (Mandeep Antil 36, Gurvinder Chandi 45).
