BPCL break free on Gurpreet’s three

BANGALORE: Defending champions Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) banked on the penalty-corner conversions of hat-trick man Gurpreet Singh to post a 5-1 victory over Sports Authority of India (SAI) in the Ozonegroup Super Division hockey league on Wednesday.

Another fancied side Air India outclassed Madras Engineers Group (MEG) 9-5 in a reduced one-hour contest. Namdharis were leading 2-0 against Army Services Corps at half-time in the first match of the day when a faulty pumping system prevented the watering of the turf and forced the organizers to postpone the second half to a later date.

In the BPCL-SAI encounter, the scoreline didn’t reflect the hostelites’ dominance in the first half, particularly their midfielders who did a good job of disrupting the rhythm of BPCL’s moves.

But it was BPCL who scored against the run of play when forward Amar Aiyamma sounded the board after a quick move from the right. Gurpreet was on target with his second setpiece attempt at the stroke of half-time but the 2-0 lead couldn’t have satisfied a strong unit like the BPCL.

SAI couldn’t continue their dominance in the second session with the lion’s share of their moves confined to the right flank and lacking teeth. Gurpreet made it 3-0 just four minutes after the lemon break but SAI struck back through forward Pradhan Somanna, who put the ball in with an angled hit from the right.

BPCL enhanced their lead when drag-flicker Gurpreet completed his hat-trick in the 55th minute with a neat direct strike to the top left of the goal. Sher Singh rounded off the tally two minutes later.

Results: BPCL: 5 (Amar Aiyamma 12th, Gurpreet Singh 35th PC, 39th, PC 55th PC, Sher Singh 57th) bt SAI: 1 (Pradhan Somanna 43rd); Air India: 9 (Shivendra Singh 8th, 33rd, 35th, Len Aiyappa 18th PC, 39th PC, Vikram Pillay 21st, Sameer Dad 41st, Arjun Halappa 47th, Birendra Lakra 55th) bt MEG: 5 (Prithvi Shetty 16th, Muthanna 38th, Mohan Muthanna 54th, 58th, Poovanna 60th PC); Namdharis: 2 (Malak Singh 10th, Harpreet Singh 11th PC): 2 leading against ASC: 0 at HT.