New Delhi: Punjab National Bank (PNB) clinched a hard fought 3-2 victory over ONGC at the 48th Nehru Senior Hockey Tournament played here at the Dhyanchand Stadium on Saturday. ONGC who are of the favorites to win the tournament did play to their reputation but eventually succumbed to a strong and tactical PNB side.

PNB XI started off well and were right on the money from the word go and created pressure early on in the match not allowing ONGC to settle down. PNB took the lead in the seventh minute through Arjun Antil. Two minutes later, Jitender converted a penalty corner to double the lead for PNB. They kept the pressure on their opponents, and kept pushing ONGC’s defence line.

ONGC however did not crack under the pressure and pulled up their act together to get their first goal in the match in the 25th minute through Akashdeep Singh. The goal charged them up and soon they started to attack with all guns out. Their movement became swift and they were constantly testing PNB’s defence line. With just a minute to go for the second half, ONGC got the equalizer when Diwakar Ram scored off a penalty corner.

PNB who gave away a two goal advantage in the first half looked to amend and started off with aggressive in the second half. They created many chances and forced few penalty corners but not to any avail as they blew them up. In the 49th minute, PNB scored off from a brilliant counter attack to pick up the winning goal. Damandeep took the possession of the ball in their half, dribbled it past to players, to pass it onto Arjun Antil, who cleverly pumped it past the ONGC custodian to see his team home.