Indian Oil clinch Beighton Cup after sudden death for SCR

Kolkata: Indian Oil held their nerves and registered a victory over South Central Railway in the sudden

death to emerge champions in the Coal India 114th All-India Beighton Cup hockey tournament at SAI artificial turf here on Tuesday. Indian Oil scored two goals in the first-half but South Central Railway bounced back to equalise 2-2. With both teams fighting hard, the stalemate prevailed till the full time. Even the ensuing golden goal period did not yield any result as the match moved to tie-breaker where both teams scored four each to make the score 6-6. Eventually, Indian Oil settled the issue 9-8 in the sudden death after Gursev Singh of South Central Railway missed one attempt. Earlier, Indian Oil drew first blood when Hamza Mujtaba slammed the board in the 14th minute. Eight minutes later, Dharmavir made it 2-0. After the break, the Hyderabad outfit fought back with a brace from Amit Shrivas in the 44th and 48th minutes. Locked 2-2 till regulation time, the golden goal rule, which allows the team that scores the first goal during the 15 minutes to be declared the winners, came into force. But the deadlock ensued as the match moved to tie-breaker which began on a dramatic note with both the teams missing their first attempts. Indian Oil then converted four attempts through Aryan Antil, Rupinder Pal Singh, Gaurav Tokhi and Dharamvir. South Central Railway matched their opponents scoring through Innocent Kullu, Mohammad Aleem, Gursev and Prabhakar Singh as the match moved to sudden death with a 6-6 scoreline. In the sudden death, Indian Oil kept their cool to score through Antil, Rupinder and Tokhi. After Kullu and Aleem converted their chances, a miss from Gursev shattered the railmen`s hopes as Indian Oil took away the title. PTI