Thaindian News

Chennai, July 15 (IANS) Bharat Petroleum rode on their vast, collective experience to force a 1-1 draw with Hockey India Juniors in their opening pool B game of the 86th All-India MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup hockey tournament here Thursday.
Skipper Lalit Upadhyay put the juniors ahead in the 11th minute, putting home a pass from Naveen Sangwan, but BPCL, who were kept at bay by goalkeeper Naveen Kumar, caught up in the 65th through veteran and 1994 World Cupper Sabu Varkey who drove in from the top of the circle.

The HI Juniors, though woefully short on experience, played with greater enthusiasm against BPCL who, for all the wealth of talent and experience, were a step slower that neutralized their domination that was fairly obvious.

Goalkeeper Naveen Kumar did the star turn of the night with some fine stops, especially from penalty corners to deny BPCL who, however, maintained pressure on the juniors to clinch the equaliser.

The juniors showed plenty of pluck and potential, but a bit more muscle at the finish would have fetched them better dividends. They had very few openings, but could convert only one of these for the only goal.

Earlier, a sloppy first-half cost Karnataka XI the game as ONGC scrambled to a 4-2 win in a pool A match that could have gone the other way had the former displayed a bit more fortitude.

ONGC struck twice in the first-half to seize the initiative. Although Karnataka made a match of it on resumption by scoring two goals, the experienced ONGC hung on to their advantage to pick up full points.

Goals by Pramod Kumar (17th) and Sandeep Antil (22nd) gave ONGC a 2-0 lead at the break while Jagwant Singh (45th) and penalty corner specialist Diwakar Ram (70th) added to the tally.

For Karnataka, Ravikumar (44th) and Nikken Thimmaiah (65th) found the boards.