Air India fly high on return

Narayan Swamy

BANGALORE: Air India celebrated their return to Ozonegroup State Super Division hockey league in style, emerging champions with a 2-1 victory over Army Red on Saturday.

In their last league encounter in the 11-team event, the Gavin Ferreira-coached unit rode on two first-half strikes by Yuvraj Walmiki and Shivendra Singh to secure their ninth win to tally 27 points, one more than the second-placed BPCL, incidentally the only unbeaten side in the league this season. BPCL won their last game on Saturday, outclassing SAI 3-0, but couldn’t defend their title. They were closely followed by IOCL, who logged 25 points.

IOCL’s ace drag flicker VR Raghunath became the top scorer in the tournament with 23 strikes including 21 penalty-corner conversions and two penalty strokes to add to his feats at the Beighton Cup and Nehru Cup recently.

Among the local sides, Army Red came up with another impressive show to finish a creditable fourth while Fortis, boasting quite a few international faces, had to be content with the fifth place.

Army Services Corps and Maratha Light Infantry, who qualified for the second phase after Canara Bank pulled out, will return to the first phase of the Super Division next season after finishing at the last two places this season.

Air India got Rs 2 lakh for their effort, BPCL Rs 1.5 lakh and IOCL Rs 1 lakh.

Results: Air India: 2 (Yuvraj Walmiki 26th, Shivender Singh 38th) bt Army Red: 1 (Elizer Lakra 65th); BPCL: 3 (Karamjit Singh 37th, Gurpreet Singh 47th, Amaya Aiyamma 63rd) bt Namdharis: 1 (Gurbhag Singh); ASC: 3 (Chandan Aind 23rd, Surajan Tutti 52nd, KP Deepu 62nd) bt MLI: 1 (Sunil Kumar 69th); Fortis: 3 (Diwakar Ram 2nd, 50th, KM Chengappa 50th) bt SAI: 0.

Special prizes: Best goalkeeper: Swinder Singh (BPCL); best defender: Harpreet Singh (Namdharis); Best midfielder: Birendra Lakra (BPCL); best forward: S Armugam (Army Red); highest goal scorer of the league: VR Raghunath (IOCL, 23 goals, PC-21 ,PS -2); player of the final: Sameer Dad (Air India); player of the championship: Inderjit Singh (IOCL); most admired hockey player: Sabu Varkey (BPCL); most promising player: Sagay Jayaseelan (MEG); fair play trophy: MLI.

Final standings: 1. Air India (27 points); 2. BPCL (26); 3.IOCL (25); Army Red (20); 5.Fortis (16); 6. SAI (13); 7. Namdharis (11); 8. MEG (10); 9. Army Green (6); 10. ASC (3); 11. MLI (1).