IOC serve warning in Gurmit Hockey

Chandigarh, Sep 26 (UNI) Strong contenders Indian Oil Corporation, Western Railway and Electrical and Mechanical Engineers were qualified for quarter-finals of the 38th SN Vohra's All India Gurmit Memorial Hockey Tournament at the Sector 42 Sports Complex here today.

The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited had moved into quarter-final yesterday. Formidable Punjab Police, Indian Overseas Bank Chennai, Border Security Force Jalandhar and Air India have been bye into the quarter-finals on the basis of their performance in the last edition of Gurmit Hockey.

The quarter-final line-up is--Punjab Police vs Indian Oil Corporation, EME vs IOB, BSF vs ONGC and Western Railways vs Air India. Indian Oil Corporation, with Olympians Didar Singh, Deepak Thakur and Prabhjot Singh in their line-up, served a warning to their opponents as they grounded Indian Air Force by 4-0 after leading 1-0 at half time.

IOC maintained their dominance throughout the match. However, the IOC showed poor penalty corner conversion rate. Out of seven PCs awarded to them, they could capitalise only on two. After wasting their first penalty corner in the 12th, minue, IOC-s Raghunath converted the second penalty corner awarded to them in the 29th minute to give his team 1-0 lead.

Speedy Prabhjot Singh then scored a field goal in the 43rd minute, Didar Singh sounded the board with a powerful penalty corner shot in the 51st minute.

Deepak Thakur got IOC's fourth goal, a field one, in the 67th minute.

Electrical and Mechanical Engineers continued their winning spree as they edged out Punjab and National Bank by 1-0. The all-important goal was scored by Gurjinder Singh, who converted a penalty corner in the 14th minute.

Seeded straight into pre-quarter-final, Western Railway, playing their first match, stroked out South Central Railway of Hyderbad with an aggregate 5-3 margin in the tie-breaker session after the teams played a one-all draw in the regulation period.

It was Western Railway, who first forged ahead as Gursevak Singh converted a penalty stroke in the 60th minute and Inocent Kullu converted a penalty corner in the 64th minute.

Tomorrow's fixtures (QF): Punjab Police vs IOC (1515 hrs) and BSF vs ONGC (1745 hrs).

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