Indian Oil Corporation (IOC)
defeated Indian Army 5-4 after being 1-3 down at half-time to reach the final of the 92nd All-India MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup tournament here Saturday.
In the final tomorrow, IOC will take on Indian Railways, which outclassed Punjab & Sind Bank 4-0.
The semifinal between IOC and Army was an action packed affair as the two teams went all-out from the word go.
IOC went into the lead with a penalty corner conversion from Arman Qureshi in the fourth minute.
Army pulled one back in the 20th minute when Sajeeb Dung Dung scored from a penalty corner.
The equaliser seemed to have galvanised the army men as they stepped up the attack and came up with threatening moves.
In the 27th minute, Biraj Ekka sounded the boards from a well orchestrated move and Sanjay Toppo increased the lead to 3-1 five minutes later through another field goal.
Trailing 1-3 at half-time, things didn't look too good for the strong IOC team.
However, they bounced back in the second half and reduced the margin as Qureshi got his second goal, in the 42nd minute.
In the 50th minute, Army increased the lead again when Gurpreet Singh coolly converted a penalty stroke.
Facing an exit with 20 minutes to go, IOC found a saviour in Gurjinder Singh as he scored a brace in the space of seven minutes to enable IOC level the match at 4-all.
He first beat the rival goalkeeper from a penalty corner and then converted a penalty stroke.
Affan Yusuf secured the match-winner for IOC when he found the net in the 63rd minute.
The other semifinal between Railways and PSB was a one-sided affair as the former pumped in three goals in the first half and added another in the second as the Bankmen appeared clueless.
Harsahib Singh scored two goals while Nilkanta Sharma and Rajin Kandulna had a goal each to help Railways complete the rout.
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