Punjab National Bank (PNB) sent star-studded defending champions Air India packing out of the 12th PMC Bank-Guru Tegh Bahadur Gold Cup hockey tournament with a 2-0 victory margin in the all-Delhi semi final here today.
PNB will meet local outfit Western Railway in tomorrow's final following the latter's thumping 5-1 victory over Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala, in the second semi final held at the Mumbai Hockey Association Limited's Mahindra Stadium.
Satender Dalal opened the scoring for PNB against AI in the 11th minute with a top-of-the-circle attempt off a short diagonal pass.
Crossing over prolific scorer Gagandeep Singh doubled the lead for PNB in the 59th minute with a close range effort and seal the win against AI who were unimpressive in spite of the presence of half a dozen former internationals in their ranks.
PNB could have added a couple of more goals and were foiled by the alert goalkeeping by ex-international Adrian D'Souza who blocked shots from Sumit Toppo, Naveen Antil and Sanjay in the second period.
PNB forced two penalty corners, both in the first half, while AI secured two each in either half without succeeding to score.
In the second semi final, a charged up Western Railway, produced a solid, determined performance to tame RCF.
For Western, Malak Singh (29th minute), Ayyappa (31st), Vinod Singh (32nd), Amit Rohidas (47th and 54th) scored the goals while for the Kapurthala outfit Karanpal Singh (44th) was the lone goal-getter.
