Hockey: PNB and Indian Oil march into semifinals of Bombay Gold Cup
Punjab National Bank (PNB) and Indian Oil recorded big victories to advance into the semifinals of the Union Bank of India-52nd Bombay Gold Cup All India Hockey Tournament in Mumbai on Sunday.
Former champions Indian Oil, after leading 4-0 at half-time, went on to drub Union Bank of India, Mumbai, 5-1, while last year's runners-up PNB produced a strong second half performance to crush a listless Western Railway, also from Mumbai, 5-0 after leading 1-0 at lemon time.
In the semi finals, scheduled on Tuesday after a day's break tomorrow, PNB will clash with Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, Bengaluru, while Indian Oil will face off against defending champions South Central Railway, Secunderabad.
Today, Indian Oil dished out a pleasing, attacking brand of hockey and had the Union Bank defense running around in circles.
They opened the scoring in the third minute with Talwinder Singh scoring from a field effort and five minutes later Bharat Chikara doubled the lead from another field goal.
Later, international full backs Raghunath Vokkaliga (29th minute) and Gujinder Singh (34th) scored a goal each from penalty corners to put Indian Oil 4-0 up at the break.
On resumption, the oilmen relaxed their stranglehold and stuck just one goal through Talwinder, who got his second goal of the match. The bank men also got a consolation goal, Suraj Shahi scoring with an angular hit.
The second match was a dull affair as both PNB and Western produced an insipid performance and hardly showed any purpose in their approach.
PNB finally broke the deadlock when Gagandeep Singh Jr. finally found success from their fifth successive penalty corner in the 22nd minute and gave the team a slender 1-0 half-time lead.
However, after the change of ends, Westerns game fell to pieces and they allowed their opponents to dictate terms and to score at regular intervals.
Gagandeep Singh Sr. scored the second in the 42nd minute and three minutes later Gurjinder Singh Jr. scored from another penalty corner to increase the lead (3-0).
Later Gurjinder Singh tapped in the fourth in the 51st minute and Sumit Toppo hammered in the fifth goal in the 60th minute.