Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) wouldn’t have envisioned such an early exit from the 94th MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup All-India hockey tournament here on Thursday.
The defending champion went down tamely 6-2 to Central Secretariat here on Thursday in a Group-A contest. The defeat meant IOC remained at seven points from four matches. Karnataka (seven points) sneaked into the last four based on a better goal difference (+1) as compared to IOC’s -1.
Earlier, Indian Army (nine points) topped Group-B with an authoritative 6-0 victory over Indian Air Force. Army had a superior goal difference (+9). On the other hand, Punjab National Bank’s (nine points) goal difference was 0 and it ended up second in the group.
In the semifinals to be held on Saturday, Railways will take on PNB while Hockey Karnataka will challenge Army.
Secretariat was definitely considered a weakling as its performance in its previous three matches wasn’t satisfactory. Secretariat (six points from four matches) failed to qualify for the semifinals, but prevented IOC from making it!
On the day, Secretariat put on a confident display that upstaged IOC, which was perhaps lethargic and overconfident. The red card given to drag flick specialist Gurjinder Singh (for abusing the umpire twice) midway in the third quarter turned out to be a huge setback for IOC.
The defending champion disrupted play for around 15 minutes contesting the decision. On resumption, IOC — trailing 2-4 — had four penalty corners taken by Olympian Raghunath, but failed to convert any of them. Naveen Kumar, captain and goalkeeper of Secretariat deserves praise for his numerous saves.
Sumeet Pal Singh scored his second hat-trick for Army. Its semifinal opponent Karnataka will not be easy by any means. Possessing a clutch of young players guided by senior S. V. Sunil, Karnataka has been the team to watch in the tournament.
Friday is a rest day.
The results: Indian Army 6 (Sumeet Pal Singh 3, Manish Rajbhar, Harman Singh 2) bt IAF 0.
Central Secretariat 6 (Hassan Basha, R. Manikandan, Mohd. Umar, Mohd . Shariq 2, Aniket Balasaheb) bt IOC 2 (Gurjinder Singh 2).
