Indian Oil beat Air India in Bengaluru cup

Prabhjot Singh

Bangalore, Oct 10 (IANS) Veterans and former India stars Deepak Thakur and Prabhjot Singh scored a goal apiece to script a 3-1 win for Indian Oil Corporation Ltd against Air India on the opening day of the Bengaluru Cup All-India invitational hockey tournament here Friday.

Thakur and Prabhjot scored through field goals in the 21st and 25th minutes to put IOCL 2-0 ahead before Gurjinder Singh made it 3-0 in the 40th with a penalty corner conversion. Air India drew some consolation with a 42nd minute strike by Joga Singh.

Earlier, hosts Karnataka had mixed luck as their men's team began with a 4-2 victory over Army XI while the women lost 1-3 to Central Railway while in the other women's match, MP Academy edged past Western Railway 2-1 with all the goals coming in the second-half.

Karnataka XI's Kusha KP set up a goal and scored one himself to bag the Player of the match against Army XI as the hosts picked up full points.

Karnataka opened the account through Umesh in the 24th minute but Siraju A.P. drew parity for Army XI in the 32nd through a soft field goal from near the left post.

However, with three minutes, Karnataka XI forced a short corner and took the lead once again with a quick drag-flick into the top of the net by Darshan D.S.

But Army XI equalised with a field goal from Arumugam S three minutes after the break. The home team struck hard in response as Honnur Swamy N. scored in the 55th minute and Kusha sealed the issue in the 65th.

Results:

Women: Central Railway 3 (Yendala Soundarya 2, Sandeep Kaur) bt Karnataka XI 1 (Sandhya HP). HT: 0-1.

MP Academy 2 (Ramngaihzuali, Priyanka Wankhede) bt Western Railway 1 (Sanggai Maimom). HT 0-0.

Men: Karnataka XI 4 (Umesh KR, Darshan DS, Honnur Swamy N, Kusha KP) bt Army XI 2 (Siraju AP and Arumugam S). HT: 2-1.

IOCL 3 (Deepak Thakur, Prabhjot Singh, Gurjinder Singh) bt Air India 1 (Joga Singh). HT: 2-0.