Bangaluru Cup: Day IX

MEN: Air India defeat IOC

Bengaluru, 18 Oct 2015: Air India defeated Indian Oil Corporation 2-1 in the last men’s league match to set-up a repeat final in the 2nd Bengaluru Cup hockey tournament sponsored by Advaith Hyundai and Micro Labs at the hockey Stadium here on Sunday.

Army XI who finished their engagements on 10 points lost the final berth to IOCL on goal difference.

Air India began on an aggressive note and scored in the 10th minute with a dipping shot by Prabodh Tirkey from their second short-corner and increased the lead three minutes before the break when Aiyappa PR deflected an Arjun Halappa long hit (2-1) into the goal.

With Army XI too having the same goal difference, Air India forced the pace of the game to increase the tally but IOCL was up to the game and defended well before reducing the margin in the 60th minute through a penalty corner conversion by veteran Prabjot Singh (2-1). That was enough for IOCL to set-up a repeat final on better goal-difference than Army XI..

Earlier, Army XI Binay Bhengra scored early in the second minute but Karnataka restored parity within four minutes through Abhishek. But Army XI shot ahead once again when a goal-bound shot, during the set-piece drill defence, hit Raheel’s leg and Army’s Chandan Aind made no mistake from the spot. Undaunted, Karnataka boys equalled once again within four minutes when Abhishek struck his second goal off a ball from Thimmanna PL. The teams crossed over on equal terms at 2-2 but the fitter Armymen raised the game with an eye on improving the goal-difference and pumped in five goals in the second half.

League Table

Air India 5-4-0-1-11-7-04-12

IOCL 5-3-1-1-18-11-7-10

Army XI 4-2-1-1-14-8-06-10

ONGC 5-2-1-2-10-14-(-4)-7

Kar XI 5-1-1-3-14-19-(-5)-4

BPCL 5-0-0-5-9-17-(-8)-0

(Read under matches played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, goal difference & points)

Women: MP Academy girls thrash Punjab 5-0

Bengaluru, 18 Oct 2015: Punjab went out with a whimper losing 0-5 to reigning champions MP Academy in an inconsequential last women’s league match of the 2nd Bengaluru Cup hockey sponsored by Advaith Hyundai and Micro Labs at the hockey stadium here on Saturday.

For MP Academy, striker Reena Khokhar pumped in a brace (11th minute, 39th min) while Sidhi Singh (PC 19th min), Shivani Singh (38th min) and Karishma Singh (47th min) made it 5-0.

In a lop-sided match, MP Academy girls began with Reena scoring off a Ramnugaihzuali short pass in a goal-mouth melee and Reena went on to add one more in the 39th minute. Later, a clean direct hit to the boards by Sidhi Singh of a short-corner made it 2-0. Then there were two more field goals. After Reena’s second, Karishma too struck off a pass from Priyanka to round off the tally 5-0. The only move that looked good for Punjab came in the 64th minute from Pooja Rani but the resulting penalty corner was muffed.

MP Academy will play Haryana in the final at 5.30 pm on Monday. Tickets are available at the stadium and bookmyshow.com

League Table

Haryana 4-4-0-0-11-2-9-12

MP Academy 3-2-0-1-11-4-7-9

Central Railway 4-2-0-2-8-8-0-6

Karnataka XI 4-1-0-3-7-12-(-5)-3

Punjab XI 4-0-0-4-3-14-(-11)-0