Deepak does the star turn for IOC again

Deepak Thakur has been the go-to man for Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) for quite a while.

And he has lived up to his billing by scoring most of the goals for his team in the 89th all-India MCC Murugappa Gold Cup hockey tournament here.

On Thursday, the 34-year-old once again proved his value to the side by scoring all four goals in defending champion IOC’s 4-3 victory over Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG).

With the victory, IOC topped Pool A with 10 points from its quota of four matches while CAG had to settle for second place with seven from four.

IOC will take on Punjab & Sind Bank while CAG will challenge Army XI in the semifinals to be played on Saturday.

In an inconsequential Pool A match, Avtar Singh’s late goal was instrumental in Namdhari XI’s solitary-goal win over Mumbai.

Namdhari and Mumbai finished their engagements with four and two points.

Truth be told, IOC has been scratchy in the tournament with too much reliance on Deepak. Against CAG, for the major part of the first half, it was a pretty close contest. After Deepak missed an easy chance with a wayward strike, CAG opened the account through Naemuddin’s strike off a penalty-corner. Though CAG made some eye-catching moves it lost possession in the ‘D’.

IOC, which had more possession, created a few chances with Deepak and Sunil Yadav making valiant efforts to equalise. The equaliser came soon when Deepak deflected home a pass from the right by Vikash Sharma.

CAG impressed for a while in the second session with Naemuddin and Avesh Ansari combining well. Later, V. Shanmugam’s delicious pass from the left went abegging before Naemuddin scored his second, tapping in a rebound off the ’keeper Baljit Singh’s pads.

Deepak was at hand again to equalise when he converted off a penalty-corner move after Didar Singh’s drive ricocheted from the ’keeper’s pads. Within minutes Deepak had IOC ahead when he scored following a melee.

There was more drama to come 10 minutes later when CAG made it 3-3 through a cleanly struck corner by skipper Mahendra Kumawat.

And as has been the case in this tournament, Deepak came to IOC’s rescue once again by scoring an opportunistic goal in the dying minutes.

Friday is a rest day.

The results:

Pool A: IOC 4 (Deepak Thakur 29, 49, 52, 69) bt CAG 3 (Naemuddin 12, 47, Mahendra Kumawat 62); Namdhari XI 1 (Avtar Singh 68) bt Mumbai 0.