IOC emerges as new champion of All-India Obaidullah Khan Gold Cup Hockey Tournament
The 65th All-India Obaidullah Khan Gold Cup Hockey Tournament concluded at the Aishbagh Stadium in Bhopal, the capital city of the Indian State of Madhya Pradesh. Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) claimed its first ever title of All-India Obaidullah
Khan Gold Cup by defeating Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) by 3-2 in the final of the tournament.
The final match proved a nail-biting battle between IOC and BPCL, but IOC held its nerves until the end and the result was in their favour, making them to clinch their maiden trophy at the Obaidullah Khan Gold Cup Hockey Tournament.
The match started with an early show by IOC team, who completely dominated their opponents during the entire first half. Deepak Thakur, the captain of OIC team, did the business in the 12th minute of the first half, by scoring a superb field goal
with the help of an excellent stick work and put his team ahead of their opponents. It did not take more than seven minutes after the first goal, when IOC once again penetrated the defence-line of BPCL and scored the second goal in the 19th minute,
but this time it was Ramandeep Singh, a veteran forward, who also has served the Indian hockey at international level for a long period.
Making it 2-0, IOC team did not stop at the same score. Instead they kept on the electrifying pace and maintained pressure on the contenders. It was almost ten minutes before the end of first half when they succeeded in strengthening their lead by 3-0. The
IOC defender, V.R. Raghunath successfully converted a penalty corner into third goal of the match. At the end of first half, the score stood at 3-0 to IOC, almost all of the damage was done to BPCL.
In the second half, it looked a new story as the BPCL team seemed to be more fanatical and tried very hard to come back in the game. But it took too long as in the 58th minute BPCL opened their account on a penalty corner and the scorer was Gurpreet
Singh. They further reduced the goal margin just two minutes before the end of the match, an astonishing field goal by Jarnail Singh. The final score of the match remained at 3-2 to IOC.
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