In an extremely disciplined performance, BPCL humiliated Air India 6-2, as Air India failed to match up to BPCL’s pace and urgency. BPCL displayed high quality and showcased why they are the defending champions at the ongoing KSHA Super Division League, in Bangalore.

For BPCL, goals were scored by Jarnail Singh (9th and 56th minute), Amar Aiyamma (19th and 23rd min), Hari Prasad (61st minute) and Karamjit Singh (64th minute). For Air India, the goal scorers were Len Aiyappa (32nd minute) and Vikram Pillay (66th minute).

1st half: BPCL rules

As the game commenced, BPCL went in the plunder mode straightaway. BPCL forwards – Amar Aiyamma, Jarnail Singh, Hari Prasad and Sher Singh –looked threatening right from the word go. With excellent backing from the midfield and authoritative defense, BPCL refused to give any break to Air India defense line.
Few minutes into the game, it looked only a matter of time when BPCL will succeed. As Air India thwarted BPCL attacks, BPCL missed out on scoring on their only penalty corner of the game in the 7th minute. Moments later, Jarnail Singh was set up (amongst a napping Air India defense) and he took a reverse flick inside Air India’s circle to taking BPCL up 1-0.

This followed a bit of urgency from Air India which didn’t last long. With efficient, small and skillful passes, BPCL kept rotating the ball amongst themselves.
In the 19th minute, the fleet-footed Sabu Varkey, running down the midfield, gave a lovely pass to Amar Aiyamma. Amar kept running down the center lane, took a reverse hit inside the D, giving Air India goalkeeper, Adrian D’Souza, no time to react. The ball found the net and BPCL stamped their superiority 2-0.
Controlling the midfield with authority, Sabu set up Amar Aiyamma yet again in the 23rd minute, only to find a loner Len Aiyappa in the circle. He was beaten convincingly and BPCL went up 3-0 promising a high scoring game to the little audience present under the flood lights.

Only in the 32nd minute, Gurbaj Singh’s urgency brought in some delight to Air India when he entered a packed defense of BPCL and got a penalty corner for this team. Scoring on a low flick, Len Aiyappa gave a reason to smile as the teams went in for the half time with score 3-1 in favor of BPCL.

2nd half:BPCL endorse their superiority

Air India changed their strategy a little and started attacking in the 2nd half. As Shivender Singh, Amir Khan and Victo Singh missed easy chances, Air India got 3 penalty corners in short intervals. However, Len failed on all occasions as a vigilant BPCL goalkeeper, Swinder Singh, very well backed by Gurpreet Singh and Irshad Ali in the defense line, denied any happiness to Air India.

After 20m of pure defensive game, with a little intent to pick on counter-attacks, BPCL changed the gears to repeat the story of 1st half again. Brilliant cross pass from Sabu set up Jarnail Singh on the left side of Air India goalpost. He made no mistake and the score went up 4-1. This followed another brilliant stick work by BPCL as Hari Prasad was set up in the 61st minute. As he scored from the right side, the score now read 5-1.

As if the humiliation was not enough, in the 64th minute, Karamjit Singh added one to his name as well, thereby leaving a hapless Air India trailing 1-6.
A consolation goal for Air India came from Vikram Pillay who brilliantly rallied and deflected a pass to score a goal in the 66th minute. 6-2 in favor of BPCL was the score at the full-time hooter.

In today’s game, although Len Aiyappa and Vikas Pillay did a commendable job in defense but they had little backing from their linkmen. On the other hand, BPCL played as a team, religiously marked Air India’s forwards and denied them of any gaps in the midfield. Even when Air India possessed the ball, they had little options to pass the ball as all lanes were blocked by BPCL.

Namdhari v Fortis:

In the other match of the day, Fortis beat Namdhari 3-0. Goal scorers were Fortis were Diwakar Ram (40th and 54th minute) and Damandeep Singh (60th minute).
The match started at a very slow pace with little interest from Namdhari to score. They preferred a defensive approach in the 1st half. Fortis kept attacking and got as much as 4 penalty corners for themselves. But poor pushing and stopping outlined in their plight in making any use of hard-earned penalty corners.

On the other hand, Namdhari changed flanks often and were very fast in covering the ground but they failed to generate a full-hearted convincing attack.

In the 2nd half, Fortis attacked more and looked more disciplined in their attacks. Led by Damandeep Singh and Bikas Toppo, Fortis got 4 penalty corners. Diwakar Ram, this time fed with the ball at the correct time, made no mistake and scored a brace.
Interesting bit of the match, possibly as a reaction from KSHA officials after yesterday’s Air India v Namdhari on field spat, was the name of Kannan Krishnamurthy, KSHA Secretary, as one of the umpires. No wonder, as a pleasant change, Namdhari v Fortis match concluded without any unpleasant argument.

In other matches of the day, MEG beat Army Green 3-2 and Army Red beat SAI 2-1.
Final 3 days of the league:

The pool table is very interestingly placed now with IOCL at 1st position with 24 points, followed by BPCL at 22 points closely followed by Air India 21 points. Army Red ranks 4th with 19 points. All the above teams are yet to play another 2 matches in the final 3 days of the league.
The big match coming up tomorrow, 27th Jan, is BPCL v IOCL.

BPCL has to beat IOCL to stay in contention for the top spot. If IOCL beats BPCL, they need a draw from their last match to win the KSHA Super Division League 2010-11.