IA, Railways in National hockey final

Defending champions Indian Airlines and Railways overcame tough challenges from their respective opponents in the semi-finals of the 60th senior National hockey championship before carving out identical 6-5 victories via the sudden-death on Friday.

Indian Airlines got the better of Punjab and Sindh Bank while Railways pipped Punjab in keenly contested matches, both of which were tied 2-2 after regulation time. The sudden-death was resort to as extra-time and the tie-breaker failed to break the deadlock.

Indian Airlines opened the scoring in the 11th minute through a field goal by Brojan Singh and Virender Singh made it 2-0 five minutes later when his cross inside the striking circle went straight in the goal.

Punjab and Sindh Bank stepped up its game but had to wait till the 28th minute for a breakthrough, when Baljit Singh Chandi sounded the board with a solo effort. Baljit converted a penalty-corner four minutes later to equalise.

Thereafter both the teams made several attempts at their rival goals but without any success. In the tie-breaker both the teams converted two of the five penalty strokes. Len Aiyappa and Sameer Dad found the target for Indian Airlines while Kanwal Preet Singh and Tejbir Singh scored for Punjab and Sindh Bank. Aiyappa and Dad scored once again in the sudden death and Kanwal Preet Singh too did the job but Tejbir Singh missed, to give the defending champions a hard-earned victory.

In the other match, Railways shattered the hopes of 13-time champions Punjab to storm into the final in similar fashion.

The Railway-Punjab semi-final went to the distance as the two teams were locked 2-2 after 70 minutes of regular time and 15 minute extra-time. Even the tie-breaker, which saw each team scoring thrice, failed to break the deadlock.

Railways struck in sudden death for a 6-5 verdict, when Ajay Bharti pushed one home while international Baljeet Singh Dhillon failed to convert his stroke.

Inside right S Barnalla converted the first penalty-corner Railways earned to put his team ahead in the fourth minute of the game after Punjab had squandered a chance in the very first minute.

Both the teams made forays into rival areas for most part of the first half before Baljeet Bhullar restored parity for Punjab through a field goal.

Four minutes later Baljeet Singh Dhillon struck another fine goal to give Punjab a 2-1 lead going into the break.

After the breather, Railways made all out efforts to draw level and full back Anup Tirkey converted a penalty-corner in the 55th minute.

Punjab will rue their missed chances as they failed to score off four more penalty-corners in the second half.

As regulation time and the 15-minute extra-time ended in a 2-2 deadlock, the tie-breaker was enforced, where both the teams scored three goals each.

For Railways Ajay Bharti, Jagmohan Singh and S Barnalla scored while Chander Pal and Sukhdev Singh failed to convert their penalty strokes.

For Punjab, Baljeet Singh Dhillon, Daljeet Singh and Avtar Singh were the scorers while Jugraj Singh and Harmik Singh were off the mark.