The Hindu: Gurjinder stars in Indian Oil’s triumph
Gurjinder Singh converted two penalty corners as Indian Oil convincingly defeated Bharat Petroleum 5-3 to lift the title in the 121st Beighton Cup hockey tournament at the SAI Complex here on Tuesday.
The summit clash was a contest between experience and youth and Indian Oil, which had been making it to the final for the last five years, played its cards well to come out on top.
Indian Oil applied pressure from the word go and Gurjinder sounded the board from the second penalty corner in the fourth minute.
Showing better coordination, the Indian Oil forwards worked their way through Bharat Petroleum’s porous defence and S.K. Uthappa tapped in an accurate cross from V.R. Raghunath, who went up the field to surprise the opponent.
Bharat Petroleum tried out some moves but could not get past seasoned and alert goalkeeper Devesh Chauhan.
Gurjinder displayed another low flick to make it 3-0 in the 22nd minute and give his side a firm grip over the proceedings at the break.
Bharat Petroleum returned with a positive approach and gained from beautiful execution of short passes. The ball moved from Lalit Upadhyay to Tushar Khandker and to Amir Khan before meeting the target in the 42nd minute.
Two minutes later, Varun Kumar converted a short corner to reduce the margin to 3-2.
However, the Deepak Thakur-led Indian Oil again asserted its supremacy in no time. Thakur banked on a rebound from the goalkeeper’s pads to inflate the lead before assisting his old mate Prabhjot Singh to slot in another one.
Bharat Petroleum, which had six players from the Junior World Cup winning team against Indian Oil’s one, tried its best but could not bridge the gap despite Haranpreet Singh’s 63rd minute conversion.
The winning side bagged Rs. 2 lakh, while the runner-up got Rs. 1 lakh. Indian Oil’s Kothajit Singh was adjudged the man of the tournament.
The result (final): Indian Oil 5 (Gurjinder Singh 4 and 22, S.K. Uthappa 12, Deepak Thakur 45 and Prabhjot Singh 48) bt Bharat Petroleum 3 (Amir Khan 42, Varun Kumar 44 and Harmanpreet Singh 63).