JOIN USOil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd (ONGC) and Indian Air Force (IAF) shared spoils after a hard-fought 2-2 draw in their Pool ‘A’ tie at the Hockey Stadium here on Saturday.
ONGC, on a high, after clinching the MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup on last week, had their task cut out against a resilient IAF.
ONGC began brightly but had to wait till the 15th minute to take the lead through Hartaj Singh Aujla, who produced some neat play inside the semi-circle before squeezing in a low shot into the bottom right corner of the net.
ONGC could have doubled their tally five minutes later but Mithilesh slammed his effort wide from a tight angle.
Damanjit Singh restored parity for IAF in the 23rd minute when he placed the ball into the roof of the net from a penalty stroke, which was awarded after an ONGC defender used his body to block Lovpreet Singh’s goal bound shot.
The teams were locked at 1-1 at half-time.
ONGC resumed aggressively after the break and pressed for the lead. The relentless pressure soon paid dividends as they went ahead in the 49th minute through Jagwant, who tapped the ball in past the helpless goalkeeper Manish Kumar.
Refusing to go down, IAF fought back and brought the scores level in the 59th minute. After an earlier chance from a penalty corner was denied by a firm ONGC defence, IAF attacked again and got their equaliser through Damanjit, whose powerful shot from a penalty corner went past the ONGC custodian Simranpreet Singh. ONGC pushed hard for the winner but IAF remained firm at the back.
Result: Pool A: ONGC: 2 (Hartaj Singh Aujla 15th, Jagwant Singh 49th) drew with IAF: 2 (Damanjit Singh 23rd, 59th); Mahaveer Jain Sports Academy: 3 (V Veera Thamizan 20th, 33rd, 51st) lt to Army XI Green: 6 (Rakesh A 13th, Chandan Aind 45th, 68th, Rahul Kumar Yadav 49th, Poovanna 58th, Mandeep Singh 63rd).
Pool B: All India Customs: 3 (Hassan Basha 23rd, 31st, Jayesh 44th) bt SAI: 2 (Abharan Sudev 47th, 67th).