Air India, ONGC to clash
Air India have dominated most domestic tournaments for a while now, and on Friday they proved why. Despite being patchy in most games, Air India booked a place in the final of the Lal Bahadur Shastri hockey tournament with a 2-1 win over Bharat Petroleum in the semifinals with captain Sameer Dad underlining what the national team lost out on when he was prematurely ignored at selection meetings.
Dad has been the fulcrum of Air India and his immaculate passing and ability to find the gaps once again made the star-studded team almost a one-man show. Despite a line-up boasting of numerous current and former India stars, Dad was the man of the match.
Having managed to set up most of the goals scored by his team, Dad perhaps decided it was time for him to get his name on the score sheet as well. He put Air India ahead in the 21 st minute with a well-placed low hit that gave the BPCL keeper no chance and then scored the winner through a powerful hit off a penalty corner in the 49th.
BPCL, unbeaten through the tournament, managed to pull one back through Amar Aiyamma’s penalty corner conversion in the 38th minute but were unable to make any further inroads as the Air India defence crowded their half to give no space and custodian Adrian D’Souza brought off some impressive saves to keep them ahead.
In the other semifinal, ONGC beat Indian Oil in their second straight semifinal match-up – after the Nehru Cup last month. Gurvinder Singh Chandi continued to impress, putting ONGC ahead a minute before break. Diwakar Ram, who certainly deserves a look-in in the Indian squad, made it 2-0 in the 46 th minute before IOC fought back to level scores through captain Deepak Thakur and V Raghunath.
With the scores tied in regulation time, Diwakar struck the golden goal two minutes into extra time for ONGC’s second consecutive final against Air India.
Saturday’s final: Air India vs ONGC, 2.30 pm