Indian Oil outwits Mumbai

By Nandakumar Marar

MUMBAI, NOV. 29.Indian Oil enhanced its prospects of qualifying from Pool D of the National hockey championships, overpowering Mumbai 3-0 with a display of aggressive, possession hockey at the Mahindra stadium. Having squeaked past Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in its first tie, Indian Oil now has six points after two games, both against potential qualifiers from the group.

Mumbai also has six points, but off three matches and its chances of finishing among the top two from Pool D will depend on the last game against CRPF, who won the opening match of the day by hammering four goals without reply against Maharashtra. Tatas notched its first victory, beating Gujarat 4- 2.

Indian Oil had to wait till the 10th minute of the second half for its first goal against Mumbai, Hamza Mojtaba sounding the boards with a crisp reverse hit, but there was no doubt about its domination. The newly-formed team, coached by Ajay Bansal and competing in the Nationals for the first time, showed its class with the effortless manner in which the players kept the ball in possession, keeping the Mumbai midfielders and defenders in a state of permanent retreat.

Deepak Thakur, showing flashes of the speed and opportunism which earned him a place on the Indian Olympic squad at Sydney, got the second goal, an opportunistic effort across the body of onrushing goalkeeper Bopanna which made up for the disappointing time he had against the tight marking CRPF players. T. Kullu struck the third goal for Indian Oil during injury time, converting its third penalty corner of the match.

Mumbai, for all the running it did in pursuit of the ball, managed a couple of sporadic raids and wasted two opportunities to reduce the margin of defeat. The first chance came to striker Leonard Pereira, who found the space to sneak into the Indian Oil goalmouth from the blind side of the defence during a free-hit, but took a feeble attempt in a hurry. Later, a Sabu Varkey centre found the ball whizzing across the goalmouth with no Mumbai forward at hand to dive or deflect.

For the rest of the match, Mumbai had no choice but to play second fiddle, despite the presence of former international Sandeep Somesh in the middle and current international Gagan Ajit Singh up front. Defender Callistus D'Souza, skipper and tireless playmaker Varkey worked hard but in vain, while a few speedy runs down the left flank by Leonard Pereira went abegging for lack of support.

Lakhwinder Singh remained the livewire of the Indian Oil attack, while the others did their bit to create space, run hard and in the process keep the attacking momentum going. Likewise, Jolen Topno emerged CRPF's trumpcard for the second consecutive day, getting two goals against Maharashtra, the first and fourth goal coming from Karan Raj Singh and S.K.Vashisht respectively.

Tata Sports Club, struggling to make an impression in this tournament organised by the Bombay Hockey Association, went 3-0 up through Asad Khan, Sridhar Krishnamurthy and Junaid Jada before Gujarat skipper Shashi Gorade made his mark with a goal (3-1). Jada got his second goal of the match (4-1), only to see Arvind S reduce the margin (4-2).

Thursday's match: Gujarat vs CRPF (4.00 p.m.).

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