ONGC complete hat-trick, beat Air India 2-1

Defend, counter-attack, strike, score. ONGC did just that as they came back from a goal down to beat defending champions Air India 2-1 and win the Mumbai Hockey Championship at the MHA Stadium on Sunday.

With the win, ONGC completed a hat-trick of titles, having won the Nehru Cup (in November 2011) and the Lal Bahadur Shastri hockey tournament last December.

The Oilmen registered their second consecutive win over Air India.

They had also beaten them 4-2 through the tie-breaker in the Shastri Cup. The Airmen, who had won the trophy in 2010, attacked right from the onset. Air India had plenty of opportunities to take an early lead, but they fumbled and missed back-to-back penalty corners. Both sides failed to break the deadlock in the first half.

Air India’s attacking game paid off in the 47 minute when Joga Singh struck from the right flank. Six minutes later, ONGC’s Gagandeep Singh got the equaliser through a penalty corner.

ONGC played the waiting game and just when it looked like the match would go into a tie-breaker, the Oilmen were awarded two penalties. While they missed the first, skipper Harpal Singh converted the second penalty in the 67th minute, ensuring that his side returned victorious. But it was not over yet. The Airmen got lucky when they were awarded a penalty corner with one minute remaining. However, they failed to capitalise and slumped to yet another final defeat to the ONGC.

Harpal attributed the win to their strategy. “Our aim was to not concede a goal early and to man Sameer (Dad) and Dhanraj (Pillay). Even when we were a goal down, we stuck to our game and it worked. We were just focussing on counter-attacking and it won us our third successive title.”

He also said he was looking forward to playing in the World Series Hockey. “WSH is a great tournament and am sure it will take hockey to greater heights.”

Air India coach Gavin Ferreira felt a few blunders on the part of the referee cost them the game. “Even the referees are humans but had they not made certain errors, the result could have been different. The third penalty corner, which was awarded to ONGC, actually hit our player’s leg outside the D, but it wasn’t referred to. However, our players too didn’t play to their potential,” he added.
The winners were richer by Rs40,000, whereas the runners-up were awarded Rs20,000.

Results: ONGC 2 (Gagandeep Singh 53, Harpal Singh 67) bt Air India 1 (Joga Singh 47)