The Hindu : Sport : Hard-fought win for Air India

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 27, 2005

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Sport

Hard-fought win for Air India

By V. V. Subrahmanyam

HYDERABAD, MARCH 26. Air India recorded a hard-fought 2-1 win over Indian Railways in a super league match and kept Indian Airlines' hopes alive in the 61st senior National hockey championship for the Rangaswamy Cup at the Gachibowli Complex here on Saturday.

Railways needed a win or a draw to book a berth in the knockout phase after its win over Airlines. After today's result, Airlines, which takes on Air India has a chance to qualify if it records a victory by a two-goal margin.

In another match, Indian Oil Corporation quelled a spirited challenge of Uttar Pradesh for a 5-1 win after being kept at bay till 15 minutes to go for the final whistle with a 2-1 lead.

Namdharis knocked out Karnataka with a 3-2 win. It was Karnataka's second straight defeat after its loss to Services on Friday. Punjab & Sind Bank recorded the most fluent win of the day, a 4-1 win over Bengal.

Keen contest

The IOC-Uttar Pradesh match was keenly contested. A major handicap for the young UP boys was their poor ball control inside the D. The UP forwardline of Prashant Yadav, Ravi Bharti and Amit Tyagi was enterprising with winger Santosh Kushawa being the pick.

IOC took the lead in the 15th minute when Bikramjit Singh converted a penalty corner with a direct hit.

Prabhjot Singh and Deepak Thakur kept IOC in the match despite insignificant contribution from the normally efficient Viren Rasquinha.

A splendid cross from the right by Deepak Thakur to K.S. Kamlesh saw the latter trap it neatly to score IOC's second goal in the 25th minute.

After the break, Ravi Bharti latched on to a short pass from Mohd. Haneef and reduced the margin. But with Deepak and Prabhjot working in tandem, IOC forced four penalty corners in quick succession. Deepak Thakur's wonderful effort made it 3-1 for IOC in the 64th minute. Two minutes later, an unmarked Prabhjot slotted the ball in from a difficult angle from the right of D. He then latched on to a lovely centre by Deepak Thakur to complete the tally.

In the Air India-Railways match, the former took the lead in the 48th minute through Hardeer Singh. Hardeer also scored the second goal. Railways reduced the margin in the 67th minute through Gurseva Singh, who converted a penalty corner.

Professional approach

Namdhari was more professional in its approach against Karnataka, which had only itself to blame for missed chances, particularly in the last 15 minutes when it was trailing 2-3. Namdhari took the lead in the 26th minute when Didar Singh was on target with the second penalty corner. In the 30th minute, Jasdev Singh went for the drive in the D only to see the ball deflected by the custodian. Harvinder Singh pounced on the rebound to score the second goal. Just before the break, it looked as if Karnataka would fight back through an indirect penalty corner hit when Irshad Ali scored.

But Namdhari dominated the show on resumption. Gurcharan Singh slotted the ball in to give it a 3-1 lead. Karnataka again reduced the margin in the 62nd minute when drag flicker Len Aiyappa was spot on with the fourth penalty corner. However, Namdhari hung on to the 3-2 lead as the Karnataka forwards Irshad and Amar Aiyamma made a mess of at least three clear chances.

For Punjab & Sind Bank, Kulwinder Singh struck a brace in the 14th and 20th minutes. Ajitpal Singh and Baljit Singh Chandi also scored, while Bengal's lone goal came through Shakti Kumar.

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