Indian Oil outplays ONGC

Special Correspondent

GURGAON: Indian Oil outclassed Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) 5-1 after leading 2-0 at halftime in the semifinals of the 19th Lal Bahadur Shastri hockey tournament at the Nehru Stadium here on Tuesday.

In the final, Indian Oil will be challenged by Bharat Petroleum that was equally impressive in its 3-0 triumph over Punjab National Bank in the other semifinal.

Dominating show

Though Indian Oil looked to be a bit lethargic and preserving its best for the final, it proved too good for ONGC, in a match that it dominated from start to finish.

It was Roshan Minz who opened the floodgates with a sharp strike midway through the first half, smacking a crisp diagonal drive into the corner of the board. Six minutes later, Inderjit Singh consolidated the position for Indian Oil with a neat reverse hit.

On resumption, Indian Oil stepped up the pace, and struck three goals in the space of eight minutes through V. Raghunah, skipper Deepak Thakur and Prabhjot Singh.

That was too much to swallow for ONGC, which eventually managed to pull one back to save its face, as Rajdeep Singh slotted home on the rebound, off the team’s fourth penalty corner.

The Indian Oil goalkeeper, Baljit Singh, who was eventually declared the ’man of the match’ for his competent performance that blunted ONGC, ensured that there was no further drama in the last 10 minutes, though the gap was too healthy to bridge.

Clinical fare

In the other semifinal, Bharat Petroleum asserted its authority with a clinical fare against Punjab National Bank.

Gurpreet Singh converted the team’s first penalty corner in the 10th minute, and Tushar Khandekar consolidated the position with a goal in the 22nd minute.

Six minutes into the second half, Hari Prasad completed the tally. The bank team forced four penalty corners, but was unable to have its say in the one-sided contest.

Live telecast

In the final on Wednesday afternoon, to be telecast ‘live’ by Doordarshan, Indian Oil would attempt to wipe the bad memories of not even qualifying for the quarerfinal league of the Nehru tournament recently, while Bharat Petroleum would attempt to improve on its runner-up position in the same event.