ALL-INDIA MURUGAPPA GOLD CUP

Sinclair Strikes To Keep Alive Local Team’s Semis Hope

Chennai: It’s not easy fighting back from a 0-2 deficit in the first half, but Adam Sinclair led Indian Overseas Bank did just that to edge out Karnataka XI 3-2 in a thriller and kept alive their semifinal hopes in the 84th All-India MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup here at the Radhakrishnan Stadium on Monday. The former Indian forward struck the winner in the dying moments of the match and dashed the hopes of the Karnataka side.

“We shouldn’t have underestimated Karnataka today. We were over-confident, but now we’re happy to win the game. They played orgainsed hockey and were very attacking from the beginning. We squandered a few good chances. In the first half itself we should’ve equalised. Now, we hope to beat Mumbai in the next match,” Sinclair said after the match.

Karnataka fullback Rama Rao scored the first goal to put them ahead in the seventh minute. And their star forward Sandeep Michael, a former India international, increased the lead in the 17th minute. The Karnataka team dominated the game, but it was in the last 15 minutes the local side came roaring back.

In the 56th minute, IOB’s specialist deag-flicker Muthuselvan played a grounder to Gopinath off a penalty corner and the latter’s shot deflected off a rival player’s stick into the net. In the next minute, a combined effort by Senthil and Sinclair saw IOB levelling the score. A lissome Sinclair generated an attack down the middle and passed it to Senthil, who played a one touch with him, before pushing it into the goal.

It became a one-sided affair after IOB scored the equaliser. In the 64th minute, Sinclair once again created a golden chance for IOB forward Vinod Rayar, but the lanky striker failed score. Sinclair himself made a mistake in the 67th minutes, but was intelligent enough to come back with a brilliant winner in the next minute. After a superb run down the leftflank, Sinclair played a pass to Senthil who gave it back to him. Sinclair controlled the ball in a goalbound melee and promptly put it into the net.

“We didn’t loss hope after training 0-2. I knew once we make it 1-2, we have a chance to bounce back into the game. Boys showed good temperament. We badly needed this win,” Sinclair told TOI.

In the first match of the day, Air India thumped Orissa XI 7-3. While defender Sandeep Singh and former India international Arjun Halappa scored a brace each, Vinay, Bruno Lugan and Vikram Pillay completed the rout.

In another exciting tie, Mumbai XI held Indian Oil Corporation 4-4. Despite taking a mighty 3-1 lead in the first half, Deepak Thakur led IOC showed poor temperament and ended up drawing the match.

Deepak scored two goals for IOC in the 18th and 39th minutes, while drag-flick specialist VR Raghunath converted a penalty corner in the eighth minute. Rohan Minz scored in the 23rd minute for IOC.

Mumbai’s Ajay Kumar made it 1-4 in the 11th minute. After the breather Mumbai boys looked determined to do well and their assiduous midfielder Manish Saini reduced the margin in the 62nd minute. Joga Singh (67) and Osaf ur Rehman (70) struck to garner one point for IOC.