Bharat Petroleum, Indian Oil in final

The two Navratna oil companies, Indian Oil and Bharat Petroleum will clash in the final of the 37th Nehru-ONGC hockey tournament in Delhi on Friday.

In the semi-finals on Thursday, Bharat Petroleum ousted defending champions Punjab and Sind Bank 3-2 while Indian Oil pipped Army XI, 8-7 after the jawans staged a suberb rally from 0-3 down to draw level through a last minute penalty-corner, which was completed after the final hooter.

The two semi-finals were a repeat of the final Pool I and Pool III matches and both BP and Indian Oil avenged their defeats to move into the final.

After dominating the proceedings in the first 15 minutes, when they thrice came close to a goal, Indian Oil took the lead in the 20th minute, when Kamlesh Kumar deflected a free hit by Jaswinder Singh.

Eight minutes later, they earned their third penalty-corner. Bikramjeet Singh relayed the ball to Inderjeet who could have scored from close on the left, but he passed it to Deeepak Thakur, positioned on the other side, who tapped it in.

Though Army forced three penalty-corners in the 26th, 28th and 29th minutes, the Indian Oil defence, where Shamsuzuha played an excellent game, foiled the attempts.

Immediately after the break, Army's Samson Fernandes was twice guilty of missing chances. And from a counter attack, Indian Oil scored their third goal as Deepak scored with a powerful shot off a Shamsuzuha pass in the 43rd minute.

Everyone was ready for the second semi-final, but the Indian Army scripted a miraculous comeback.

Kamal Horo, the Army's hero in the earlier games fired the first salvo in the 57th minute, combining superbly with Harjit Singh. The duo moved in through the left and sidestepping the defence Harjit found Horo.

Pumped up by the goal, they threaded move after move, but Samsuzuha came up with more clean tackles inside the 'D' to nip many dangerous moves.

With two minutes to go, Army scored their second goal. Following an attempt by Indian Oil to close out the match, Army launched a quick counter and Harjit Singh who moved in through the right, shot past the 'keeper who tried to narrow down the angle lying at full stretch.

In the penultimate minute, Army's final thrust earned a penatlty-corner. Before the push was taken, the hooter went off, but Army's skipper K K Poonacha, who took his team into the semis by converting the vital penalty, did it again and the whole team jumped in joy.

And yes sport turns heroes into villains in no time. After the two teams coverted their first four penalty pushes of the tie-breaker, the score read 4-4. But Poonacha, who took Army's fifth and last penalty, failed to beat Devesh Chauhan, who palmed away the weak scoop. Inder Singh scored for Indian Oil to make it a perfect five after clean conversions by Prabhjot Singh, Lakwinder Singh, Inderjeet and Inder Singh.

For Army Paramjit Singh, I Tirkey, Avtar Singh and Cypirin Aind scored.

The match between Punjab and Sind Bank and Bharat Petroleum was an even contest. If Gagan Ajit Singh was BP's trump card, in Baljit Singh Chandi, PSB had the man to measure up to the challenge.

In the end, both had an ordinary game, though Gagan scored BP's second goal in their 3-2 win.