Printed Article. The Hindu

Chennai: Indian Oil was confronted with several tense moments before breezing into the last four pulling along the local league champion, Indian Overseas Bank, in the MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup hockey tournament at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium on Thursday.

The 3-3 result against Indian Railways in Pool A signalled the end of phase one with the last four teams lined up for the semifinals to come off on Saturday.

In fact, when Hardeep Singh struck in the early minutes, it was a clear alarm for IOC, and the team continued to torment the formidable opponent till the final whistle, picking up two goals in the last 10 minutes to finish the day honours even.

But the heroic performance failed to bring any substantial benefit for Railways, which finished the programme with five points. With experience and expertise as the chief virtues, IOC overcame the initial misstep to get into a working rhythm.

As expected, striker Deepak Thakur was in the thick of action, prompting the wingers and inside forwards to move in tandem.

He led by example scoring the equalizer with palpable panache. True, he failed to reach a cross from Roshan Minz earler, but midway through he produced stunning deflection to give the finish for a move initiated by Inderjit Chadha and developed by Rajpal Singh.

It was to the latter’s reverse pass that Deepak put that delicate deflection. Close on half-time Prabhjot Singh enlarged the margin in his inimitable style making the best use of a goalmouth skirmish created by a cross from Chadha.

Prabhjot proved too crafty for the Railways custodian.

Unfazed by the defeat staring in the face, Railways never lost its poise and spirit.

Wing half Manjit Kullu and Bharath worked tirelessly, and Hardeep Singh created a ripple of excitement whenever he sallied into the rival area.

But again it was IOC that picked up the goal when Chadha netted in a penalty corner from a shot by Deepak Thakur.

That however did not last long as Hardeep Singh slotted one more when eight minutes remained from the hooter, and Innocent Kullu pumped in the equaliser for a 3-3 draw.

IOC finished on top with a tally of eight points followed by Indian Overseas Bank at seven.

Earlier, Namdhari XI picked up its only victory in four matches by prevailing over the inexperienced Orissa Sports Hostel 4-1 after a goal-less first half.

Friday is a rest day.

The results: Namdhari XI 4 (Gumail Singh, Harmeet Singh, Karamjeet Singh, Gurvinder Singh) bt Orissa Sports Hostel 1 (Dhyanchand Mondal); IOC 3 (Deepak Thakur, Prabjhot Singh, Inderjit Chadha) drew with Indian Railways 3 (Hardeep Singh 2, Innocent Kullu).