HOCKEY | IOC weathers Army’s sustained challenge to make the title clash

Former champion Indian Oil Corporation defeats Army 3-2 in intense semifinal, while Indian Railways outplays Odisha 4-0.

Former champion Indian Oil Corporation knows a thing or two about handling pressure situations. Against an Army side, playing, probably at its best, IOC showed its class by scripting a 3-2 win in the semifinals of the 95th MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup All-India hockey tournament here on Saturday.

Earlier, in the other last four clash, defending champion Indian Railways outplayed Odisha 4-0, courtesy a hat-trick by Joginder Singh, to enter the final.

The tie that drew all the attention was the one between IOC and Army. After a tug-of-war that didn’t yield any goal in the first two quarters, IOC struck out of the blue in the third.

A sliding push home by Aarman Qureshi off a pass from the left from Gujinder Singh, put the team ahead. IOC struck again at the start of the fourth quarter when Sumit Kumar pushed a rebound home off a penalty corner.

At that stage, things looked difficult for Army. Cyril Lugun’s goal through a stroke gave the required push for Army. It was the phase when Army was at its menacing best, attacking IOC from both flanks, earning three penalty corners. It, however, couldn’t convert any of them.

IOC’s third goal through a Gujinder stroke didn’t deter the spirit of Army one bit. It earned three back-to-back penalty corners, out of which the last one resulted in a stroke. Cyril’s conversion off a corner brought back the required spirit in the Army camp and in the last two-odd minutes, Army gave all it had, but IOC was in no mood to relent.

The results (semifinals): Railways 4 (Joginder Singh 1, 38 & 43, Yuvraj Walmiki 16) bt Odisha 0.