Indian Navy had to summon their coast guards to avert danger, before prevailing over youthful Coorg Eleven 3-0 in the semifinals of the 54th All India Gold Cup hockey tournament, at the MHA astro Turf stadium, Churchgate, here on Tuesday.
But for those three goals, which was due to defending lapses, these boys from Bengaluru, exhibited good hockey. They attacked in regular intervals, and their mid-field hockey was immaculate.
Their make-shift custodian was AC Subramani in his best elements and the way he averted danger to his goal off the three penalty corners was act of perfect goal keeping.
S Harsha, PP Belliappa along with KR Bharath were real threat to the Indian Navy, but the lady luck was not on their side of the fateful day. There were at least four occasions the wood work came to the rescue of the Navymen.
In the final slated to be held on Wednesday, Indian Navy the local league champions, to face off South Central Railway (SCR), Secunderabad who shut the doors on defending champions Indian Oil, New Delhi with a crushing 5-2.
Results (Semi-finals)
Indian Navy, Mumbai: 3 (Ajinkya Jadhav, Pawan Rajbhar, aakib Raahim) beat Coorg XI, Mumbai: 0. South Central Railway, Secunderabad 5 (P R Aiyappa 2, Sheshe Gowda, Pratap Lakra, Lovepreet Singh) bt Indian Oil, New Delhi: 2 (Sumit Kumar, Talwinder Singh).
