The Hindu : Karnataka, IA in last four

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 15, 2002

Sport

Sport - Hockey

Karnataka, IA in last four

By Our Sports Reporter

BANGALORE April 14. In what looks to be suspiciously like a `tanked' match, Indian Oil Corporation beat holder Punjab Police 3-0 in the last league fixture of the U & I Champions Trophy tournament at the KSHA Stadium here on Sunday.

The match was marred by incidents of stone throwing by irate spectators peeved with the fact that Punjab Police was playing to lose in order to meet Karnataka and avoid playing Indian Airlines in the semifinal on Monday.

A senior official of KSHA, Mr. Sundar Rao was injured in the stone throwing and had to be rushed to hospital where he had to have four stitches. Later, Punjab Police's Baljit Singh Dhillon , in a fit of anger, threw his stick into the crowd.

Punjab Police's attitude to the match was obvious. Deliberately shooting wide off target despite having open opportunities to score sparked off disturbances from the spectators. The match was interrupted for some time and the State police was called in to maintain order. Ironically it was a case of cops policing cops with Punjab Police culpable of poor sportsmanship.

When order was restored the game continued but IOCL had taken a 3-0 lead and the rest of the match was reduced to a farce. For the record Rajpal Singh (10th off a penalty corner), Lakwinder Singh ( 11th) and Bikramjit Singh ( 23rd off a penalty corner) scored for IOCL.

Pool B's fixture between Karnataka and Indian Airlines was crucial in deciding the semifinalists from this group and when the teams were locked together in a 2-2 draw it was a good result for both sides.

While Karnataka moved into the last four with the draw, Indian Airlines had to wait for the result of the next match as a goal difference could allow Punjab & Sind Bank a slot in the semifinals.

Punjab & Sind Bank found BPCL a tough opponent and the 2-1 win for PSB was not enough for it to make the next phase. The semifinalists' line-up thus reads Punjab Police and IOCL from Pool A and Karnataka and Indian Airlines from Pool B.

Karnataka has been the dark horse in this tournament thus far. A side studded with young talent, Karnataka has been combining cohesively and capably gaining in stature with every game.

The last league match against National Champions Indian Airlines may have ended in a draw but Karnataka deserves credit for extending the National title holders and denying it a win.

The match swung in the home team's favour in the 13th minute when P.T Aiyappa ensured that Skipper Kavin's shot off a penalty corner reached the destination.

Indian Airlines fought hard to restore parity and it was only off the fifth penalty corner (41st) that Indian Airlines managed to split the defence. Dilip Tirkey crashed the ball in beating Bharat Chettri who did a commendable job in the goal.

Indian Airlines, striving to ensure a safe berth in the semifinals with a win over Karnataka, went ahead in the 55th minute. Ravinder Singh making a swift run down the left flank sent in a timely pass to Brojen Singh well positioned in line with the left upright post. Brojen easily tapped the ball in.

Karnataka urged on by a small gathering of supporters revived to again go into attack mode. The second penalty corner in the second half (65th) saw Ronald Kiran make a defence splitting crack which sounded the boards. With the scores level, Karnataka's think tank deemed it prudent to play safe and share the honours. A result which placed it on top of Pool B with 11 points.

Indian Airlines and PSB both had 10 points but Indian Airlines squeaked ahead with better goal average.

Punjab & Sind Bank's target at the start of the second match was clear. A 6-0 win was what the bankmen needed to qualify. But the way the match went, it was soon evident that the task was herculean.

BPCL made it even more difficult scoring the first goal of the match in the 28th minute, Deepak Sharma being the scorer. Sandeep Singh Seep scored for PSB two minutes before the break and with time ticking away PSB's chances faded fast.

Sharanjit Singh scored off a penalty corner in the 57th to gain victory but lose out in the contest for qualifying.

A glut of goals dotted the fixture between Air India and Indian Railways. Tarcius Kullu scored twice for Air India ( 26th and 60th) with Kishore Kumar (22nd) and Deepak Kumar (64th) being the other scorers.

Bikramjit Singh scored a brace for Railways (4th and 44th) and Brijnev Singh (56th) rounded off the tally.

The semifinal line-up for Monday is IOCL vs Indian Airlines and Punjab Police vs Karnataka.

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