Delhi outfits, Punjab National Bank (PNB) and Indian Oil, both recorded big victories to advance into the semi-finals of the Bombay Gold Cup All India Hockey Tournament 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.
In the semi-finals, scheduled on Tuesday, PNB will clash with Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), Bengaluru, while Indian Oil will face defending champions South Central Railway, Secunderabad.
Indian Oil dished out an aggressive brand of hockey that 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 struck just one goal through Talwinder, who got his second goal of the match.
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. They eventually lost 5-0.
Punjab National Bank will clash with BPCL in the first semi-final at 2.00 pm on Tuesday, and later Indian Oil will face off against South Central Railway in the second semi-finals.