Surjit Hockey: Air India face IOC in final

Kusum Arora

Star studded Air India Mumbai will be pitched against holders Indian Oil, Mumbai in the finals of the 28th Indian Oil Servo Surjit Hockey tournament to be held at Olympian Surjit Hockey stadium, Burlton Park tomorrow.

In a one-sided match, experienced Air India men routed Namdhari XI Sirsa by 2-0 while in the second match of the day, Indian Oil Mumbai defeated Bharat Petroleum, Mumbai by 6-3. This is the second consecutive entry of Air India in the finals as last year the team had ended up as the runners up of the tournament.

For Air India it was a smooth sailing and a fine show as their Lalit Upadhyay single-handedly steered the team to victory. Lalit scored a field goal from the pass of Joga Singh in the 5th minute of the game 1-0 followed by another goal by him in the 30th minute of the play 2-0.

The Namdhari XI men ended up wasting a good penalty corner in the 9th minute while poor defense virtually brought the team to a halt. At half time, Air India was leading by 2-0.

The second half of the game saw both the teams mounting pressure on each other but failed to capitalise. In the 55th minute of the play, Namdhari’s Sukhchain Singh wasted a golden chance to reduce the margin, which in a way brought curtains down for their team while Air India managed an easy entry into the finals.