Chennai: A shocker looked very much in the offing when Indian Overseas Bank led twice and was even well placed for sharing points but Indian Oil lived up to its stature and grasped a 3-2 victory three minutes before the hooter in Pool A as the annual MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup hockey tournament unfolded here on Thursday. The contestants were 1-1 at half-time.

For the home team goalkeeper Sreejesh stood out superbly baulking six penalty corners from IOC in the early part and a goal by Adam Sinclair for IOB was a superlative effort.

Classy touch

Even as Muthuselvan drove from the first penalty corner, Adam Sinclair responded beautifully by providing the finishing touches with an eye-catching deflection, not often seen in Indian hockey’s scoring patterns these days.

For all the pressure and persistence displayed by the IOC, featuring a string of internationals like Deepak Thakur, Rajpal Singh, Inderjit Chada, Raghunath, Bharath Chikkara, and the redoubtable Prabhjot Singh, the score-line remained at nought till late in the first half.

It was Raghunath’s immaculate flick that brought IOC on board nearing half-time.
Unfazed by the reputation of the opponent, or even by the dangerous thrusts by the famed IOC frontline, the IOB defence, ably led by Muthuselvan held on.

The IOB forwards, Adam Sinclair and Vinod Rayar in particular, caused a lot of concern to the IOC defence. The former was more conspicuous than the rest, and showed noticeable flair and fluency in his workouts.

It was Rayar who paved the way for the second penalty corner which Muthuselvan converted to hoist the lead again.

Leveller

It took quite a while for the IOC to comeback. Even as visions of an upset floated up came leveller, Raghunath slotting in from the 10th penalty corner. IOC frittered away a couple of chances — the seasoned Prabhjot Singh missing a sitter after Rajpal Singh served him a delicate pass — but Prabhjot Singh then compensated for his earlier solecisms to snatch the match winner from an astute pass by Inderjit Chadha.
He did a delectable deflection on the run that completely bemused the goal-keeper.

Somewhat predictably, Air India had a comfortable first outing in Pool B with a 4-1 victory over Army XI after leading 3-1 at half-time.

Sandeep Singh swept in a penalty corner in the early minutes followed by Bruno Lugun midway through.

Before half-time it was Girish Tirkey but the Army XI restricted the margin from a goal by Arumugam.

In the second half, Air India had to wait for a considerable length of time to enlarge the margin and this came about when Cheeyanna struck a few minutes before the whistle.

The tournament was inaugurated by Mr. M.A. Alagappan, Executive Chairman, Murugappa Group, in the presence of Mr. Manickavasagam, President, Madras Cricket Club.

On Wednesday, in the inaugural match between The Hindu XI and Madras Cricket Club ended in a 4-4 draw.

The results:

IOC 3 (Raghunath 2, Prabhjot Singh) beat Indian Overseas Bank 2 (Adam Sinclair, Muthuselvan). HT 1-1; Air India 4 (Sandeep Singh, Bruno Lugun, Girish Tirkey, Cheyanna) beat Army XI 1 (Arumugam).

Friday’s matches: Karnataka XI v Mumbai XI (4 p.m.); BPCL v Air India (5-45 p.m.).