Mighty BPCL blank IOB

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Brushing aside any misplaced notions of complacency creeping in their game following their rather subdued effort against also-rans Punjab National Bank in the opening fixture, BPCL responded in a manner that was befitting of a champion side with a virtuoso 4-0 drubbing of IOB in the MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup hockey tournament here on Saturday.

BPCL hit their stride right from the word go and looked like a team on a mission by blowing a jaded IOB out of the water. The ease with which they romped home would suggest that the draw against PNB was only an aberration. This was a day when BPCL forward Amir Khan didn’t put a foot wrong and single-handedly took IOB’s defence to shreds and along the way completed a memorable hat-trick.

His goal-scoring spree started in the 14th minute with a neatly executed PC. From there on BPCL grew in confidence and began toying with IOB. The momentum was firmly with BPCL and the pleasing aspect of their rout was that they never once took their foot off the pedal despite having their opponents on the mat.

Amir Khan scored the second of his two goals in the 28th minute by dodging past his marker and smashing the ball into the roof of the net. At half-time the scoreline read 2-0 in favour of BPCL. Looking at the body language of IOB players it became abundantly clear that they gave up hope of staging a recovery.

Action in the second-half followed the same pattern as the first with IOB looking hopelessly out of their depth even as BPCL were intent on twisting knives in their wounds scoring a couple of more goals to make it a resounding win.

The day’s second match between Indian Railways and All India Customs was a lot closer affair. With both the teams losing their opening matches it must have been preying on their minds that they could ill-afford to shed any more points if they were to have a smidgeon of chance to advance to the knock-out stages.

Customs looked a markedly different team to the one that suffered the ignominy of losing by a massive 12-1 margin to IOC on Friday night. But it was Railways who after withstanding a barrage of incursions from the frontline of Customs, went ahead in the 20th minute through a PC converted by Gagandeep Singh.

Customs repeated attempts at breaching the impenetrable defence of Railways went awry as a determined Railway held their nerve to prevail 1-0 and keep alive their chances of booking a semi-final berth.

In the day’s last match Air India continued from where they left off by vanquishing a hapless ICF 7-1 to register their second win in as many matches. V.S. Vinaya and Somanna Pradhan scored two goals apiece while Birender Lakra and Vinod Pillay each scored a goal.

Results: BPCL 4 (Amir Khan 3, Jarnail Singh) bt IOB 0, Indian Railways 1 (Gagandeep Singh) bt All India Customs and Central Excise0, Air India 7 (V.S. Vinaya 2, Somanna Pradhan 2, Birender Lakra, Vinod Pillay, OG) bt ICF 1 (Gunasekhar).

Action today: ONGC vs PNB (2.15 pm), IOC vs ICF (4 pm), BPCL vs Army XI (5.45 pm).