KSHA Super Division League:Air India spills Indian Oil
Flying high on three goals by Yuvraj Valmiki, Air India beat Indian Oil by an odd goal in five in the crucial stage of the KSHA Super Division Hockey League on Friday. It changed the complexion of the League, taking Air India close to the title.
With a point behind the Indian Oil, and a game remaining on Saturday – the last fixture the league against Army Red – Air India’s fortunes have thus turned around. They need a win in this game to get the title. A draw in this game, will catapult BPCL from nowhere to the top of the table, provided BPCL beat Namdhari in the penultimate match of the league on Saturday.
Air India surprised their famed rivals with quick moves and cross passes. Result: 2 goals in the opening 4 minutes. IOCL’s defense was caught napping on both instances – first when Halappa set up Yuvraj Valmiki, who scored from the left, on a sharp angle hit, as he crossed over the back line, and then, 2 minutes later, Vikram Pillay set up Valmiki again for the second goal.
IOCL got into maddening urgency and started attacking without giving a break to Air India. Air India, on the other side, fell back in defense and kept thwarting each and every attack of IOCL making sure that Deepak Thakur and Prabhjot Singh are rendered ineffective, thanks to religious man to man marking done by Cheeyana and Vikas Pillay.
In the 9th minute, a brilliant head-on penalty corner save by Adrian D’Souza denied IOCL a chance to score.
There were jittery moments for Air India though, as Prabhjot Singh missed a one-on-one chance with Air India goalkeeper, Adrian. Arjun Antil, too, missed a scoring chance when his hit returned from the goalpost bar. Had it not been full-back Cheeyana, Deepak Thakur would have made merry on the innumerable loose balls that he got.
Going into the lemon break leading 2-0, Air India, unlike previous games, looked confident with very effective turf coverage and excellent communication amongst themselves.
In the 2nd half, IOCL continued on the offensive. In the 39th minute, Raghunath, after failing on 2 earlier penalty corners, scored on a lesser speed grounded-flick. The score read 2-1 with Air India leading.
The game then witnessed a bitter dispute between IOCL and the officiating umpire, Dominic Savio. IOCL claimed to have scored a goal whereas Dominic awarded them a side-line hit in. With their title win demanding a draw in this match and pressurized with their repeating failures in leveling the scores, IOCL decided to leave the turf in protest.
Play remained held up for 15 odd minutes. On resumption, few Oil men looked disoriented as they kept arguing with the same umpire. That showed up on their game as they became messy with their trapping.
In the 54th minute, an unmarked Yuvraj Valmiki got a cross pass from the right flank and his neat deflection took Air India 3-1.
An accurate penalty corner conversion by Raghunath (63rd min)ensured a gripping finish. With IOCL closing in for their equalizer, a nervous Air India conceded a penalty corner in the 66th minute. Unfortunately for IOCL, Raghunath misdirected it.
For now, it looks Air India will continue flying high.
In earlier matches of the day: SAI beat Army Green 4-2, Fortis beat MLI 4-2 and Namdhari drew with Army Red 1-1.