Monday, January 11, 2010: Star studded Air India and Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC ) will vye for the top honour’s in the 9th All India Guru Tegh Bahadur Gold Cup Hockey Tournament sponsored by Punjab & Maharashtra Co.Op.Bank Ltd played at MHA Mahindra Stadium, Churchgate.

Today in the semi finals played both fancied sides Air India and ONGC registered identical wins over their rivals Indian Oil and C.Rly respectively. The airman over came Indian Oil by a narrow margin of 2-1 however at lemon break the airmen were lead by a solitary goal while ONGC upstaged C.Rly the local outfit by 2-0 score all the goals were scored in the first half of play-time.

The airmen should thanks their reliable ace drag flicker Len Aiyappa who converted 1st & 3rd penalty corner in his inimitable style to guide them to the summit clash as up front they missed dozen of sitters in the regulation time.

Legendary Dhanraj Pillay along with skipper Sameer Dad crafted brilliant moves but all went in vain on the other hand IOC were too were superb their man to man display and sudden burst upfront kept the airmen on their toes. Didar Singh led their attacks but could not get the desire success for IOC.

However IOC pulled a goal back Didar Singh converted the 1st penalty corner (58th minutes) via drag flick. In this keenly contested tie the airmen had better share of exchanges than IOC though IOC too were not far behind but both sides were hit by missed chances. Air India & IOC both star studded sides were sans their regular stars in their ranks who are doing national duty.

ONGC and C.Rly the former fancied side pitted against local out fit had to rely on their drag flick exponent Baljinder Singh and Jayanta to get pass C.Rly both crucial goals coming in the 1st half of play time in the 22nd minutes& 26th minutes .

ONGC earned 6 penalty corner and C.Rly one whatsoever C.Rly even missed a stroke earned in the 64th minutes. Akhilesh Singh try was well stopped ONGC keeper Dinesh Ekka. ONGC won sheer experience while C.rly loss due to inability to score upfront though both sides had equal shares of exchanges during play time.

Tomorrow, Air India will see ONGC in the final while Indian Oil will lock horns with Central Railways in the hard line match.