Punjab & Sind enter semis
Sanjeev Bhalla
Jalandhar

DEFENDING CHAMPIONS Punjab and Sind made it to the semifinal from pool ‘A’ on the fourth day of the Silver Jubilee Indian Oil Servo Surjit Hockey Tournament at Olympian Surjit Hockey Stadium, Jalandhar, on Tuesday.

Javed Hockey Club, Gojra, Pakistan and Bharat Petroleum, Mumbai, ended in a 3-3 draw in the pool ‘B’ encounter while in pool ‘A’ Punjab and Sind Bank defeated Independent Hockey Club, Sialkot, Pakistan, 6-3 to enter the lastfour stage.

Earlier, Bharat Petroleum, Mumbai, drew their first blood in the sixth minute of the play when centre forward Amar Aiyama netted the ball from the pass from inside right Sabu Virky. However, Pak boys equalised in the 20th minute of the game through Olympian Tariq Aziz, who scored a field goal.

But in the 24th minute of the game, centre forward Amar Aiyama scored his second goal and increased the lead (2-1) for Mumbai side.

Five minutes later, Mumbai boys further stretched the lead when Sabu Verky sounded the board to make the score 3-1.

But some rearguard action from the visitors saw them bouncing back in the tie. They reduce the lead in the 31st minute of the game (2-3) through a field goal from Khashif Ali.

After lemon break, Javed Hockey Club dominated the proceedings and played with better coordination and made some good moves to get the equaliser in the 48th minute of the game through a penalty stroke.