The Hindu: IAF & PNB in final

Indian Air Force won the battle of Services teams, riding on a complete team effort for a 4-2 victory against Indian Navy and a spot in the title clash of the 11th Maharaja Ranjit Singh hockey tournament at the National Stadium here on Tuesday.

The Naval team, undefeated so far in the competition, stumbled under pressure and some relentless attacking from IAF which kept scoring at regular intervals to take a 3-0 lead in the first half itself, starting with Ajit Pandit’s opening strike in the seventh minute.

Navy regrouped after the break and reduced the margin to 2-3 with 10 minutes to go but Varinder Singh’s strike in the 65th sealed the matter for IAF, who only had to defend the comfortable two-goal cushion for the final five minutes.

The other semifinal saw a star-studded but off-colour Air India go down 2-0 to Punjab National Bank. The Bankmen were clearly superior in their gameplan and, once had a 2-0 lead within the first 25 minutes, were content sitting back and defending even as Air India kept creating chances but failed to finish off with a goal.

The final would be played on Wednesday at 2.30 pm.

The results (semifinals): IAF 4 (Ajit Pandit, Harwant Singh, Sukhdev Singh, Varinder Singh) bt Indian Navy 2 (Pawan Rajbhar, Jugraj Singh); PNB 2 (Gurjinder Singh, Gagandeep Sr) bt AI 0.