The Hindu : Punjab Police to meet IOCL in final

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 16, 2002

Sport

Sport - Hockey

Punjab Police to meet IOCL in final

By Our Sports Reportert

BANGALORE APRIL 15. For the second day in succession stone and bottle throwing marred the U & I hockey tournament, which was at the semifinal stage at the KSHA Stadium.

The second semifinal match between Punjab Police and Karnataka was nicely poised (3-2 against the host) when a controversial umpiring decision affecting Karnataka sparked off ugly scenes by fans.

However it must be mentioned that Punjab Police behaved in a restrained manner, and probably after Sunday's poor showing, did not want to aggravate the situation.

Karnataka was downed 2-4 by the title-holder and thus Punjab Police will meet IOCL in the final as the latter beat Indian Airlines 8-7 via a penalty shoot-out.

Karnataka fielding a side of raw but competent youngsters did very well to match the Punjab Police with a strong showing.

Punjab Police studded with an array of international players spurted into the lead capitalising its first penalty corner with Baljit Singh Dhillon scoring a blinder in the sixth minute. Some excellent work by Bharat Chetri in the Karnataka goal kept the Policemen at bay till the 31st minute when Baljit Singh Dhillon again fired in a penalty corner push in.

The second half saw Karnataka firing on all cylinders. Prakash Chalke superbly swept a free hit taken by Arun Rawat four minutes after resumption of play. The home team fans were delirious with joy when in the very next minute Prakash Chalke made a swift and spirited move on the wings and crossed to Mandanna who struck the ball in. With the scores level there was great anticipation that Karnatak could pull off an upset win. But Punjab Police was better equipped to deal with tight situations. Baljeet Singh put Gabbar Singh in possession in the 47th minute and the latter made no mistake.

The next goal sparked off the disturbances.

Tejbir Singh scored off a pass from Jagbir Singh and when the Karnataka players crowded umpire Mohammed Muneer disputing the goal matters deteriorated fast. Spectators began to hurl missiles and no amount of persuasion from officials or Karnataka players could placate the crowd. Finally Umpire Muneer was replaced with G. S. Sangha and the match resumed.

Some 18 minutes play was lost because of the riotous behaviour. Later the Technical Director and officials of KSHA said though they supported the umpire fully there was no other alternative to re-start the game but to call in the reserve umpire.

In the first semifinal, Indian Airlines missed two vital chances, which prove ultimately costly for it.

Leading 3-2 at the half time with goals scored by Samir Dad (9th) , Brojen Singh (23rd) and Mukesh Kumar (27th) as against goals from Rajpal Singh (4th) and Kamlesh Singh (14th), Airlines had a great opportunity to score again when Mukesh Kumar in the 68th minute. Mukesh and Sameer made a tandem run and Mukesh had only goalkeeper Baljeet Singh to beat however he pushed weakishly and uppishly for Baljeet to effect a great save.

IOCL drew level in the 69th minute when Inderjeet's free hit was goal bound and Deepak Thakur deftly deflected the ball in.

During extra time Indian Airlines again could have had the match winner when Sameer Dad off a pass from Mukesh wove through the defence only managing to hit the upright post. In the shootout that ensued Altaf Ur Rehman missed his chance while all the IOCL players scored to give it a narrow win.

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