It was a performance worthy of a champion team.
Defending champion Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) produced a game that was authoritative as well as eye-catching.
Coming out with all guns blazing after a none-too impressive display in the league, IOC shut out Punjab & Sind Bank 2-1 in in the semifinals of the 89th all-India MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup hockey tournament at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium here on Saturday.
Challenging IOC will be a sturdy Army XI, which scripted a facile 3-0 win over Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG).
The first-half was a keen pointer as to how IOC would like to take this match forward.
Whatever sorties IOC came up with turned out to be wonderful exhibition of attacking hockey. To put it succinctly, it was IOC show all the way. If Sheshe Gowda tipped one past the right post off a pass by Gagandeep Singh from the right, then a minute or two later, Inderjit Singh’s shot from the left missed the stick of Deepak Thakur by a whisker. PSB, on the other hand, was taken aback by IOC’s attack mode.
Relying on long balls, PSB tried to score through deflections with passes, concentrating more from the left flank. But the IOC defence would not allow one bit.
Gauthampal Singh’s scoop from just near the goalmouth was stopped by the IOC ’keeper Baljith Singh; that was the only time that PSB came close to scoring the goal.
Seven minutes into the second session, IOC found the back of the net. Vikash Sharma charmed the spectators with a solo effort as he worked his way to the left to unleash a backhander that left PSB ’keeper Guriqbal Singh with little time to move his left foot.
PSB forced a corner right away; its first, but it was badly executed. IOC attacked in tandem. Rosan Minz and Sheshe Gowda combined well to rattle the PSB defence. Of its second corner, Sunil Yadav’s two successive strikes were stopped by the PSB ’keeper.
Deepak Thakur scored his ninth goal of the tournament, running in from the left to a calculated pass by Rosan for a withering strike. All the while, PSB struggled to make an attacking move of its own. A consolation goal by Karamjit Singh was all that PSB could take from the match.
Facile winIt was a canter of sorts for Army. The match was as good as over in the first half with Army scoring all the three goals. CAG just couldn’t force the pace of the contest with the forwards coming a cropper.
Of the three goals, the last one is worth a mention. Anup Topno worked his way from the goal-line to back pass it to the centre of the circle where Binoy Bengera was waiting to strike a blinder, and he did it with panache.
The results (semifinals):
IOC 2 (Vikash Sharma 41, Deepak Thakur 60) bt Punjab & Sind Bank 1 (Karamjit Singh 69).
Army 3 (Biraj Ekka 13, Chandan Aind 17, Binoy Bhengra 28) bt CAG 0.
