Unimpressive Air India win; IOC prevails over IOB

Chennai, Sep 04, 2008 (Asia Pulse Data Source via COMTEX) -- IOVBF | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Former champions Air India were unimpressive but managed to beat Army XI 4-1 in a pool B match, while Indian Oil Corporation, which had a full indian team in its ranks, gained full points after a hard fought 3-2 against Indian Overseas Bank in the 84th All-India MCC Murugappa Gold Cup hockey tournament, here today.

The Army's defence went haywire whenever under threat from Air India, who scored three goals in the first half through penalty corner specialist Sandeep Singh (7th), Girish Ponnappa (18th) and Bruno (30th).

They seemed set for a big win but the Armymen reduced the margin through tall and nippy forward Arumugam in the 32nd minute.

In the second half, the Air India defence manned by Dilip Tirkey and Sandeep Singh, came under constant attack from the army forwards. However nothing came of it.

Neither side scored almost throughout the second half. But an opportunistic move by Akmal helped Air India add one more goal as Cheenayanna (69th minute) made full use of a mistake by the Army defence, leaving the back fully open.

In fact Army XI had the better of exchanges and most often were in the rival circle. But a couple of passes from both the wings went unattended as also three penalty corners.

Earlier, in a pool 'A' match, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd struggled to a 3-2 win against local challengers Indian Overseas Bank, who twice went ahead, but failed to maintain the tempo. Former international Adam Sinclair deflected in a Muthuselvan penalty corner drive for the vital lead in the 16th minute. IOC found parity in the 25th minute when Indian captain Raghunath drag flicked, following a penalty corner.

In the 42nd minute, Muthuselvan again put the bankmen in the lead. This joy was also short lived as Raghunath succeeded with his team's 10th penalty corner.

The teams continued indulging in forays and the match was heading towards a 2-2 draw. But thanks to Prabhjot's intelligent work following a pass from the right by Inderjit Chadda, IOC scraped through to gain full points.

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