‘Tired’ Air India held by Namdhari XI

If Arjun Halappa, Gurbaj Singh and Vikram Pillay seemed a tad tired during their game against Namdhari XI it probably had something to do with them playing back-to-back tournaments — Asian Games and the Lal Bahadur Shastri hockey tournament.

While their commitment to play for the country and their employers — Air India — is commendable, their opponents Namdhari XI at times made them look listless. Air India have to thank the experience in their ranks and the younger players in their line-up for the 3-3 scoreline at the final whistle. The result helped Air India stay in contention for a semi-final berth.

Air India went ahead through a penalty corner by Len Aiyappa in the 8th minute, and they managed to hold the slender lead going into half time. Halappa, playing upfront and trying to combine with Dhanraj Pillay, was unable to outpace the Namdhari defenders, while Vikas Pillay had an off day as the Air India defence looked shaky.

For the Namdharis, S Singh was specially impressive. The youngster not only managed to make the Air India defence look listless, he played intelligently to try and earn penalty corners, three of the four they got was through his efforts. Not surprisingly, he was awarded the man-of-the-match despite not being able to get his name on the scoreboard. They could have scored even more but for some desperate saves by Adrian D’Souza, and lack of experience from the Namdhari forwards.

Namdharis came back strongly in the second half, scoring through Gurmail Singh and Harpreet Singh to go ahead before Birender Lakra leveled the scores. A penalty corner in the 61 st minute was converted by Aiyappa, but not before the Namdhari rusher made two dangerously suicidal saves.

Malak Singh put the ball in two minutes from time against the course of play to make sure they did not lose. For the Namdharis, a win was a must to have any hopes of progress but the draw meant they finish at the bottom of Pool B after failing to win any of their three league games.

In the other match of the day, Bharat Petroleum slammed in three goals in a space of 12 minutes to put Indian Oil on the backfoot before the latter bounced back to equalise in the second half and remain unbeaten in the competition so far. Hamza Mujtaba put IOC ahead in the seventh minute before former India international Hari Prasad levelled in the 21st minute, then Tushar Khandker fresh from scoring the winning goal against Korea to give India the bronze in the Asiad — continued his scoring efforts, scoring twice as BPCL went into half time with a 3-1 cushion.

IOC, however, regrouped after the break to earn two penalty corners within three minutes, and VR Raghunath made no mistake in converting them to help level scores. BPCL still had a chance to earn three full points but they were unable to convert any of the three penalty corners they earned. The result means both IOC and BPCL stay in the hunt for the second qualifying spot from Pool A, with two points from two games each.

On Wednesday, PNB take on ONGC, with even a draw enough to help them through to the last four, while SC Railway take on BPCL in a game that holds significance for only one team — SC Railway are already out of the race with two defeats in as many games.