NEW DELHI: Punjab and Sind Bank won the BSF Silver Jubilee Hockey Tournament here beating the host team by two goals to one after being level 11 at half time.

A goal seven minutes from the close by Ram Saran proved decisive.

For the bank man this was the second triumph in two months. Last month they had been declared winners of the Sanjay Gandhi Hockey Tournament after the final with Namdhari Club was suspended shortly after the interval following rough and rowdy scenes.

Today the match produced closely contested fare. The bank attack flourished in the later stages and succeeded in clinching the issue.

BSF had more of the exchanges in the initial half. They swung into the offensive from the start and centre forward Phardan’s effort led to a penalty comer, but goalkeeper Sarabjit Kumar sprawled to deny the securitymen an early advantage.

BSF followed it up with a couple of combined attacks, two of these being initiated by Gurmeet Singh.

The bank men replied through Ram Saran’s breakthrough from midfield. He passed to Gundeep Kumar on the night. Gurdeep cut in, but his shot went wide.

In the 23rd minute PSB forced their first penalty corner and Balwant’s shot was deflected to Gundeep, whose feeble push was cleared by a defender.

However, four minutes before the interval when they were awarded the second penalty comer, PSB used the indirect way of executing it. Gundeep rolled the ball and Balwant Singh, instead of hitting, relayed it back to Gundeep whose prompt push went in and enabled PSB to change ends with a goal to their advantage. There was another penalty comer in favour of PSB six minutes after the interval ‘but Balwant scooped over the bar.

BSF also spelt danger as Dodre crossed and Bage intercepted it. A dashing Amer deep gained possession but shot wildly into the stands. In the 12th minute, however, another attempt by Bage was blocked by goalkeeper Edwards. Bags charged and Edwards fell down and blocked again. Umpire Shakeel Qureshi awarded a stroke which was hotly disputed. Eventually Bage converted it to equalise.

Then Lumba Dodre made his way inside the scoring range only to finish it with an aimless swing.

PSB were no less active and carried out to quick, though fruitless, attacks. In place of Suresh Bhatia, Bhupinder Singh came into the attack. With eight minutes to go PSB again took the lead as Jagdeep Singh flicked the ball to Ram Saran whose hard shot went in through the legs of goalkeeper Sarabjit Kumar. It was the winning effort.

TEAMS:

BSF: Sarabjit Kumar (GK), Naman Kulu, Naman Murmur, Anjules Balung, Rajinder Singh, Kishan Singh, Gurmeet Singh, P.S. Phardan, Amardeep Singh, Simon Bage, Lumba Dodre.

PSB: Aloysius Edwards (GK), Balwant Singh, Sarbjit Singh (Harjeet Singh), Sanjeev Kumar, Gurinder Singh, Sukh jit Singh, Suresh Bhatia (Bhupinder Singh), Jagdeep Singh, Gundeep Kumar, Ripudaman Singh, Ram Saran.

REFEREES: A.S. Bawa and Shakeel Qureshi.

Article extracted from this publication >> November 30, 1990