New Delhi: The match between Punjab National Bank and Indian Air Force ended on a 2-2 draw in the last match of the league stage of 27th Lal Bahadur Shastri Hockey Tournament being played at Shivaji Stadium in New Delhi, on Friday.
Lovepreet Singh scored the first goal for IAF in 21st minute through a speedy field goal that gave the IAF a lead of 1-0. Meanwhile, PNB missed out on two penalty corner chances that it earned in the first half. Virendra Kumar of IAF scored the second goal in 33rd minute through a field goal to give his team a 2-0 lead.
At the start of the second half, PNB again earned a penalty corner but could not capitalise on that. The match seemed to go in favour of IAF, but PNB came back hard in the 57th minute and made it 1-2 when Bhagat Singh grabbed the opportunity and struck the board through converting the PC that they had earned. Meanwhile, Arun in the 69th minute equalised the score through penalty stroke, which was given amid hot discussion with the IAF players not agreeing on the foul given against them.
The coordination and passes of PNB players towards the end of the game were excellent and it reaped results against the strong defence of IAF players.
The match ended in draw with 2-2.
Satinder Dalal of PNB was adjudged as the best player of the match and a trophy for the same was presented to him.
PNB coach Govind Kanojia said, “Our penalty corner conversion was poor when we missed out on two penalty corners in first half of game. But later we got the breakthrough PC in second half and penalty stroke was a blessing.”
He expressed happiness as his team moved into the semi-finals and will clash with Air India to secure a berth in final. Meanwhile, he expressed concerns over his team’s fitness level and said that many of his players have suffered viral fever in the recent past.
Replying that his team scored both the goals through penalty corner and penalty stroke and not through field goal, he said “Fitness level of our players are low and field goal needs a lot of power. We are working on this aspect of game and results will improve.”
PNB captain Ravinder said,” We had already qualified for the semis and this was a sort of practise match for us. We change the strategy of our game from game to game and have a solid strategy for the semis against Air India tomorrow. A new level of game will be played by our team in semis and hope to reach the finals.”
IAF captain Devinder Singh said “We are disappointed and wanted to win this match to lift the morals of our team and we were having 2-0 lead in the first half but some decisions did not go in favour of us so the opposition managed to equalise the score.”
In the other match played today, Namdhari XI played a draw against Delhi XI by 2-2.Arun of Delhi X1 was adjudged man-of-the-match.
PNB will take on Air India, while Nmdhari X1 will play with IOC in semi final tomorrow.