Kusum Arora
Tribune News Service
Bharat Petroleum, Mumbai outplayed Punjab Police, Jalandhar 3-2 in a closely contested game and entered the semifinals during the 26 th Indian Oil Servo Surjit Hockey tournament being held at the Olympian Surjit Hockey stadium here on Wednesday.
Earlier Bharat Petroleum displayed good hockey skills steering the team to victory. The goal scored in the last minute of the game by International star Amar Aiyamma helped Bharat Petroleum Mumbai to reach the top slot in the tournament. Bharat Petroleum men took the lead in the 12th minute when Sher Singh struck from the right flank 1-0. Punjab Police scored an equaliser displaying good attacking moves in the 24th minute with a penalty corner conversion by former Indian Captain, Gagan Ajit Singh. At half time, both teams were levelled at 1-1. In the second half, another penalty corner conversion came from the stick of Jugraj Singh in the 50th minute. Bharat Petroleum struck the equaliser in the 60th minute when Gurpreet Singh scored off a penalty corner.
In the 70th minute, Bharat Petroleum’s Amar Aiyamma scored the winning goal to ensure their march into the semifinals. With this win Bharat Petroleum bagged four points from two outings. In another match of the day Air India, Mumbai defeated rivals Namdhari-XI, Sirsa 2-1.