Indian Oil draw with PNB, BPCL beat ONGC

Sahil Sharma

New Delhi

THE semifinal line up of the 19th Lal Bahadur Shastri hockey tournament was decided here on Monday In-. dian Oil and Punjab National Bank (PNB) played Air India out of contention with a 1-1 draw.

In a match that required Indian Oil to beat PNB for Air India to qualify into the last four — but a draw would see PNB scrape through -saw both teams perform below par.

The match failed to pick up from the outset with both teams playing with a relaxed and casual approach, looking almost unrecognisable as a unit.

Indian Oil, comprising national players such as Deepak Thakur, Prabhjot Singh and Rajpal Singh, never threatened the PNB goal and fell behind in the 25th minute when Jalwinder Singh found the top corner from PNB’s second penalty corner.

Even though they were trailing, Indian Oil never showed any signs of rush or panic to get back on level terms, they equalised soon after the break with their second penalty corner as V.Ragunath found the target.

After the equaliser, the game moved into a lull yet agian with both teams failing to collect straightforward passes and lack of communication was the order of the day .

With the final whistle, Indian Oil finished top of their group and will now face ONGC, who were beaten 3-0 by Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL).

sahil.sharma@hindustantimes.com