IOC, PNB notch up big wins

S. Thyagarajan

There was precious little that was praiseworthy about the two matches that were completed in the MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup hockey tournament on Tuesday.

The winners of the day, IOC and Punjab National Bank, took their tally to nine points after three victories in a row.

PNB’s 7-0 victory over Indian Bank brought the side to within sight of a semifinal berth. It has one match left in Pool B, against Air India.

Indian Bank, once a force to reckon with in the state, suffered its third defeat in a row leaving it with no points at all so far. With a match remaining against the in-form SAIL, the home team’s chances of getting even a point look bleak.

The resistance which lasted till midway in the first half petered out as the tie progressed. The defenders appeared timorous and unsure of their interceptions, and made a lot of errors.

Profiting from this, PNB ripped open the defensive phalanx at will. Jitender Saroha, who scored two goals, started a scoring spree which lasted till the final minutes when Ajitesh too helped himself to a brace — the first from a superbly angled reverse shot — in the space of two minutes to complete Indian Bank’s humiliation.

South Central Railway caused a flutter early on by snatching the lead against IOC, with Mayank James scoring from a loose ball that took goal-keeper Balbir Singh completely by surprise.

For a while, IOC could not get its patterns in place, notwithstanding the solid work in the midfield by Inderjit Singh, Hamza and Vickram Kanth.

Both the veterans, Prabhjot Singh and Deepak Thakur, were on the look out for openings which did not seem to appear often.

Vickram Kanth created one with an adroit forward pass, and Deepak finished with a smart backhander.

It was seasoned campaigner Didar Singh who felled the SCR defence. He produced a stunner of a shot from the top of the ring and then hit home a penalty corner to take his team to 3-1 at the break.

But SCR held on gamely, and even bridged the gap when M.G. Poonacha deflected in a cross.

There were keen exchanges, but, in the final quarter, IOC had everything under control, and added two more with Deepak Thakur scoring his second and Didar Singh his third for the match.

The results: Pool A: IOC 5 (Deepak Thakur 2, Didar Singh 3) bt South Central Railway 2 (Mayank James, M.G. Poonacha). Pool B: PNB 7 (Jitender Saroha 2, Hardeep Singh, Satpal Singh, Jalwinder, Ajitesh 2) bt Indian Bank 0.