Indian Oil XI lift Nehru Cup

Indian Oil won the 37th Nehru Cup hockey tournament on their maiden attempt, defeating Bharat Petroleum 4-2 via the tie-breaker in the final, in Delhi on Friday. The teams were locked 1-1 at full-time.

Indian Oil took the lead in the 30th minute through Prabhjot Singh. They held on to it till half-time, but Bharat Petroleum came back strongly in the second half and equalised in the 52nd minute through Sabu Varkey.

After the end of 70 minutes, the match went into the tie-breaker, without playing the 15-minute golden goal extra-time due to fading light.

Leading 4-2 in the tie-breaker, after Prabhjot Singh, Lakwinder Singh, Inderjeet and Bikramjeet Singh converted for Indian Oil, goalkeeper Devesh Chauhan saved the fourth penalty push by BP's Bipin Fernandez to give his side victory.

Before that, BP's penalty-corner specialist Anurag Raghuvanshi pushed the second penalty wide, even as M Prakash and Joaquim Fernandes converted their strokes.

This was Indian Oil's second consecutive tie-breaker victory in the competition in two days after they defeated Army XI in the semi-finals on Thursday.