Title - Air India surges to big win over ICF

Conquering the stubborn resistance encountered during the first session with cohesion and craft, the star-studded Air India struck a purple patch in the second to register a 7-1 win over Integral Coach Factory in the MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup hockey tournament on Saturday.This was Air India second win in as many matches in Pool B.What looked like an absorbing tussle in the first half — with the ICF defenders excelling in containing the might of the Air India attack —simply fizzled out in the second.The gumption displayed by the defenders headed by Pal Pandian and goal-keeper Rajkumar raised hopes of a stirring contest.The Air India attack was well smothered. It led only by two goals to nil — and one of which was self-inflicted — at the end of the first half.In fact, the seasoned Vikram Pillay failed in a penalty stroke execution.ICF’s finest moment came in the early part of the second half when Gunasekaran flicked in after a shot by Aiyappan — who deserved to be in the list of scorers for the consistency he displayed throughout — bounced back.Air India’s dominance in the second half was absolute. Two penalty corner hits by V.S. Vinaya bore fruit as did the move by Birendra Lakra.In the final minutes, Vinod Pillay and Somanna Pradhan netted to complete a big win.The 1-0 score-line that Indian Railways recorded against All India Customs in Pool B does not correctly reflect the dominance of the winner.

The margin, however, does underline the gallant work under the bar by Arvindan.

Athletic and adept, Arvindan repeatedly denied the Railway forwards the glee to seeing the ball through.

He brought off a handful of saves — some of them were decidedly spectacular.

The live-wire of the Railway attack was Chingleng Sana. The ease with which he sallied into the rival area mirrored not only his ball control but also his confidence.

Sunil Kumar was the other forward to catch the attention in the attacking line.

The goal, which proved the match winner, came midway in the first half from a penalty corner by Gagandeep Singh.

Further attempts by Gangandeep were foiled neatly by Arvindan.

Railways had five penalty corners in the match against the three by the Customs.

Earlier, a hat-trick by Amir Khan was the highlight of BPCL’s 4-0 victory over Indian Overseas Bank in Pool A.

This was IOB’s second successive defeat.

The results: BPCL 4 (Amir Khan 3, Jarnail Singh) bt Indian Overseas Bank 0.

Indian Railways 1 (Gagandeep Singh) bt All India Customs 0.

Air India 7 (Somamma Pradhan 2, own goal, V.S. Vinaya 2, Birendra Lakra, Vinod Pillay) bt ICF 1 (Gunasekaran).