Date:11/10/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/11/stories/2008101155901900.htm

Sport - Hockey

IOCL inches closer to title

BANGALORE: Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) inched closer to the title with a flattering 3-0 victory over Fortis for its sixth win in the State Super Division hockey league championship at the SAI South Centre grounds here on Friday.

IOCL now has 19 points with two matches in hand against PCTC and BPCL. Fortis on the other hand has to play BPCL and Namdhari and can best hope for a fourth or fifth finish in the table.

On a day when two local teams Canara Bank and ASC did well to snatch a point off their rivals, Army Red and Namdhari respectively, KSP went down without a whimper against Army Green 2-4.

Canara Bank came back from two goals down to chalk out a 4-4 draw. ASC conceded the lead but did well to strike home the equaliser 12 minutes from the final hooter.

Both the Army teams — Red and Green — have finished their engagements. While Army Red tallied 19 points (six wins and a draw), Army Green could muster only eight (two wins and two draw).

Canara Bank has 14 points from seven outings while ASC and KSP languish with two and six respectively. Namdhari has just nine points to show from it eight matches.

The results: Army Green 4 (Banti Singh, Ram Swamy (2), Suresh Kumar) bt KSP 2 (Pradeep, Magesh); Canara Bank 4 (Laxman Rao, Somanna, Appanna, John Verghese) drew with Army Red 4 (Rajesh Lakra, Chitaranjan, S.V. Sunil, Ignes Tirkey); ASC 1 (Harpreet Singh) drew with Namdhari 1 (Malak Singh); IOCL 3 (Deepak Kumar 2, Inderjit Chedda) bt Fortis 0.