Sunil strike earns draw for BPCL

India international S V Sunil came to the rescue of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) as they managed to secure a 2-2 draw against All India Customs in their Pool B encounter in the Bengaluru Super Hockey League on Friday.

The 28-year-old forward struck twice in the second period to help fancied BPCL avoid an embarrassing defeat after forward Hassan Basha had put Customs in front with a goal each in either of the halves.

With the likes of goalkeeper Vikas Dahiya and Sunil in their starting line-up, BPCL was expected to easily beat Customs, who are struggling for consistency. Instead they met with a clever side intent on making most of their opportunities.

After an initially period of to-and-fro, Customs surprisingly took the lead through Basha in the 24th minute.

It was all BPCL after that as they toiled hard in search for an equaliser but the strong defence, marshalled well by Darshan, refused to budge and kept the Hari Prasad-coached side at bay.

Customs led 1-0 by the stroke of half-time. BPCL picked up from where they left after the break and pressed hard for a goal, but saves from custodian Arvind Jerom kept them at bay.

However, it was Customs, who doubled their advantage in the 41st minute, after a super counter-attacking move, which was finished by Hassan. Sunil then came to the fore as he ran rings around the Custom’s defence with his skillful moves and slick passes. In the 58th minute, the forward broke through before pulling one back for BPCL with a fine strike.

With a minute left, Sunil found the back of the net again from a tight angle to salvage a draw for BPCL.

Results: Pool A: IOC: 6 (Gurjinder Singh 3rd, V R Raghunath 13th, 19th Deepak Thakur 16th, Sunil Yadav 54th, N Jen Jen Singh 55th) bt Army XI Green: 3 (Bachitter Singh 2nd, Chandan Aind 10th, Rakesh A 69th); SCR: 4 (M C Poonacha 4th, Prashant Tirkey 43rd, Ranjan Aiyappa 32nd, Sandeep Singh 59th) bt IAF: 1 (Damanjit Singh 25th).

Pool B: All India Customs: 2 (Hassan Basha 24th, 41st) drew with BPCL: 2 (SV Sunil 58th, 69th).