Comprising three former Olympians and a host of former Internationals, a star-studded Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) overcame a spirited fightback from Indian Navy to prevail 4-2 in a Group-A match of the 94th MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup All-India hockey tournament here on Saturday.
Earlier, in another Pool-A contest, Hockey Karnataka put it across Central Secretariat 2-1 while Punjab National Bank (PNB) edged out Indian Army by the same margin in a Group-B tie.
Navy appeared a confident and coordinated unit and matched the defending champion in attack and defence. Every time, IOC went ahead it came back strongly to neutralise the scores.
At 2-2, IOC showed why it’s a champion side. In a clever penalty corner move, Gurjinder Singh, instead of going for a direct shot, passed it to Affan Yousuf, who placed himself on the right side of the ‘keeper. Without batting an eyelid, the striker flicked it home, a move that flummoxed the ‘keeper Sanjay.
The Navy continued to put the IOC defence under immense pressure making several raids. IOC, however, had the last laugh through Roshan Minz, a former International, when he pushed one from close range in a quick counterattack.
Central Secretariat suffered its second successive defeat when it lost to Hockey Karnataka in a drab match that saw both teams miss many gilt-edged chances. Similarly, PNB, looking a pale shadow of its former self, as it fluffed many chances, but managed to script a victory over Army.
The results: Hockey Karnataka 2 (Thrishul Ganapathi, Pranam Gowda) bt Central Secretariat 1 (Mohd. Shariq); PNB 2 (Gursimran Singh, Sachin) bt Indian Army 1 (Rajant); IOC 4 (Arshdeep Singh, V. R. Raghunath, Affan Yousuf, Roshan Minz) bt Indian Navy 2 (Sushil Dhanwar, K. Selvaraj).
