Date:08/10/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/10/08/stories/2006100809471600.htm

Sport - Hockey

BPCL, Indian Oil enter final

Principal Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Bharat Chhikara's 74th minute golden goal sealed Indian Airlines' fate as Indian Oil stormed into the final with a 2-1 victory in the 17th Lal Bahadur Shastri hockey tournament at the Shivaji Stadium here on Saturday.

Bharat Petroluem overcame an in-form Namdhari XI 4-3 in the tie-breaker in the second semifinal to make an all-petroleum affair in the final.

The Sameer Dad-led Airlines was off-colour for most part of the game. Playmaker Dhanraj Pillay was too slow than his usual self, while in the front, Brojen Singh and Dilbagh ran straight into the Indian Oil defence as they wasted a few chances created by Pillay and Dad.

Bikramjeet scores

Indian Oil made a few moves with Deepak Thakur creating two good chances early on, but there was no one to back him up. After a goalless first half, Bikramjeet Singh put Indian Oil ahead in the 42nd minute with a copybook drag flick. Indian Oil earned two more penalty corners, but squandered the chances to improve upon the lead.

Indian Airlines earned a free-hit at the 30-yard line in the 61st minute and Pillay's slapstick shot was nicely deflected by Dad to equalise. Two minutes from close, The Thakur-Bikramjeet duo came close to scoring, but Airlines' goalkeeper, Jagdish Ponappa, made a good save to force the match into the extra-time.

In the second minute, Brojen made a daring effort cutting through the left flank, but Swaranjit Singh was late in reaching for the cross. An unassuming Chhikara moved into the circle from the right and dribbled past L. Barla before smacking a reverse flick on the run to score the golden goal.Bachitar Singh had Namdhari in the front in the 24th minute when he deflected a free from a few yards outside the circle. Bharat Petroleum regrouped on resumption and scored an equaliser five minutes into the second half through Amar Aiyamma.

Aggressive

With the scores level again, both the teams played aggressively, but the finishing was poor. In the 15 minutes of extra-time, no one took any chance thus forcing the match into the tie-breaker.

Anmolak Singh was the first to miss, but the Namdhari camp heaved a sigh of relief when Deepak also failed to score.

Irshad Ali, Ravi Naiker, Ajay Saroha and Prabhdip Singh scored for Bharat Petroleum. Gurcharan Singh, Gurpreet Singh and Gurvinder Singh made it look simple for Namdhari before Jagdeep Singh shot straight into Bharat Petroleum goalkeeper, K.C. Kuttapa.