Indian Airlines, Air India in final

Indian Airlines and Air India entered the final of the Bombay Gold Cup hockey tournament, posting contrasting semi-final victories at the Mahindra stadium, of the Bombay Hockey Association, on Monday

Indian Airlines stormed into the final with a fluent 4-0 victory over Bombay Customs in the first semi-final, but Air India had to come through several anxious moments later in a tense semi-final, marred by some poor umpiring, before getting the better of Punjab and Sind Bank by the odd goal in three.

Eight yellow cards and four green cards were flashed by umpires Ranjit Dalvi and Daljit Singh after international Edward Aranha put Air India ahead in the ninth minute. The wily forward had the mortification of receiving two of those yellow cards and had to sit out for almost 45 minutes of what turned out to be a scrappy affair, which saw a player from each side come out bleeding.

Kulwinder Singh made it 2-0 for Air India in the 24nd minute before Sandeep Ghuma could pull one back for the bankmen in the 16th minute of the second session.

In the earlier semi-final, Indian Airlines led 1-0 at half-time.

Olympian Mukesh Kumar put the champion club ahead two minutes from the breather following a penalty-corner.

In the second session, Prabodh Tirkey (55th minute), Tabrej (57th) and Virender Singh (60th) consolidated on the lead.

The final will be played on Tuesday.

UNI adds:

The Air India-PSB match was halted in the 22nd minute of the game when the winners were leading 1-0.

Edward Aranha and Devinder Pal Singh jostled each other at the sideline and immediately players from both sides joined in the fracas, flashing hockey sticks at each other. Both Aranha and Pal were sent out and the game resumed. But that was not the end of the matter as the PSB coach started abusing umpire Ranjit Dalvi and was warned.

Aranha also continued to use foul language, according to Dalvi, and was again sent out. He sat out for nearly 50 minutes out of a total of 70 minutes, which was not a sensible thing to do as he had scored a brilliant goal in the ninth minute.

Mandeep Singh had provided the cross, off a long corner, and the waist high ball was smartly deflected home by Aranha. Now, depending on the umpires' report, Aranha may or may not play in the final, though in all fairness, a couple of the seven penalty-corners that PSB earned seemed very much doubtful.