Air India in final after draw with Punjab Police, BSF rout ONGC

Mumbai, Apr 22 (UNI) Local team Air India became the first side to book a final berth from Pool X after holding formidable Punjab Police 1-1 today in the 45th All India Bombay Gold Cup Hockey tourney at the Mahindra stadium.

In the second match of the day, a Pool Y tie, BSF Jalandhar swamped ONGC 5-1 to keep their hopes of qualifying for the final from Pool Y alive.

In the match between Air India and Punjab Police, the first half saw both the teams trying to get ascendency keeping the ball in the midfield.

It was Air India, who initiated most of the attacks in the opening minutes with them getting two quick penalty corners in the sixth and seventh, but both were wasted with captain Len Aiyappa not managing to get his drag flick right.

Punjab Police slowly got their rhythm and started attacking the rival citadel and forced two penalty corners in the 18th and 29th minutes but Jugraj Singh could not take the advantage.

After the change of ends, both teams started attacking more and Air India were rewarded in just the third minute of the second half when Gavin Ferreira scored a beautiful field goal to put his team ahead in the 38th minute.

Punjab Police stung by this reverse launched attack after attack on the rival citadel and, got the equaliser four minutes later when Gabbar Singh converted a field goal following a good move down the left.

After this Punjab Police, who needed a win to book a final berth from this pool tried their level best earning two more penalty corners but could not break down the defence of the Air Indians and had to be satisfied with a 1-1 draw.

In the second match of the day, Mukhjinder Singh helped himself to three goals, while Raj Singh scored a brace to fashion BSF Jalandhar's massive 5-1 win over ONGC.

Mukhjinder started the scoring in the 16th minute to put his side 1-0 up, which was increased to 2-0 two minutes later with Raj Singh converting the first penalty corner for his team.

ONGC struck back to reduce the margin through Sunder Singh in the 25th minute only to see Mukhjinder in the 29th and Raj Singh in the 33rd put BSF up by 4-1 by the breather.

ONGC struck form in the second half and created quite a few chances, but their finsihing let them down. On a break then Mukhjinder got his third goal of the match in the 55th minute to put the match beyond the reach of ONGC.

UNI