Air India fly high on Walmiki ‘trick

Young striker Yuvraj Walmiki fired a sparkling hat-trick to power favourites Air India back into the title race of the Ozone Group State Super Division hockey league championship here on Friday.

The Mumbai player struck twice in a space of two minutes early into the contest before slotting once in the second half as Air India ground out Indian Oil Corporation Limited 3-2 in a tense floodlit encounter at the KSHA stadium.

Air India, who returned to the league after a seven-year hiatus, climbed to the second spot with 24 points from nine matches and a victory against Army Red in the final clash of tournament on Saturday will secure them the title.

Despite the defeat, IOCL stay on top with 25 points from 10 matches and will rue the early defensive errors that may have cost them the championship which was within their grasp. Defending champions Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (23), who take on Namdhari XI on the morrow, need an outright win and then hope that Air India lose or draw their match to retain the title.

Just like their 1-1 draw against BPCL on Thursday, IOCL were sloppy at the back at the start and were punished harshly by the pace and brilliance of Walmiki. Making his first start of the tournament after playing side roles until now, the youngster blew IOCL away, putting them on the back foot within four minutes of kick-off.

In the second minute, he stole a loose ball from the midfield, dribbled down the centre past three IOCL defenders before moving to the left and thundering a reverse-flick past a stunned custodian Devesh Chauhan. Two minutes later, he collected a fine pass from Vikram Pillay and pierced it past a crowded IOCL defence for a 2-0 lead.

IOCL did show their fighting qualities and probed tirelessly, but with luck eluding them, they either struck the post or found Air India goalkeeper Adrian D’Souza. As he has done so often, drag-flicker VR Raghunath brought IOCL back with two goals but Walmiki sandwiched a third that certainly put Air India on course.

Results: SAI: 4 (Poonacha MG 13th, Uthappa SK 30th, Nikkin Thimmaiah 40th, 44th) bt Army Green: 2 (Gabriel 40th, Prabhakar 44th); Fortis: 4 (Damandeep Singh 10th, 34th, Gurjinder Singh 43rd, 55th) bt MLI: 2 (Vijay Pandagle 52nd, Nileshwadkar 60h); Army Red: 1 (A Armugam 10th) drew Namdhari XI: 1 (Balwinder Singh 56th); Air India: 3 (Yuvraj Walmiki 2nd, 4th, 54th) bt IOCL: 2 (VR Raghunath 39th, 63rd).