Mumbai: Indian Oil retained the Bombay Gold Cup Hockey crown Wednesday after fighting back from the brink to overcome Punjab and Sind Bank (PSB) 9-7 via the penalty shoot-out in the summit clash, at the Mahindra hockey stadium, on Wednesday. The oilmen from Bengaluru and the bank men from Jalandhar fought their way to a tense 5-5 stalemate in regular time in the final of the 53rd edition of the tournament.
Indian Oil captain and Olympian V R Raghunath equalised at the death through a penalty corner when his side trailed 4-5 to force the tie-break which the oilmen won by showing better nerves. Raghunath again converted a penalty stroke when Vikramjit Singh, who was working his way to score from the fourth attempt, was fouled by the rival goalkeeper Guriqbal Singh to seal Indian Oil’s 4-2 penalty shootout success.
Earlier, Punjab and Sind Bank scored twice in the second quarter through Harmanpreet Singh (24thminute) and Jaskaran Singh through a penalty corner (29thminute) to open up a 2-0 half-time lead. Bharat Petroleum’s 18-year-old forward Darshan Gawkar was adjudged as the most promising player of the tournament and received a cheque of Rs 10,000 awarded by the Sports Journalists’ Association of Mumbai.
