PSB, Bharat Petroleum in final

PSB, who have had a dominant run in the golden jubilee edition, continued their rich form, outclassing South Central Railway 4-2, while Bharat Petroleum edged out defending champions Indian Oil 7-6 via sudden death in the other last four encounter.

 

A compact defence and a sharp attackline were the highlights of PSB’s victory. A 12th-minute strike from Jagjit Singh followed by quick goals from Parvinder Singh and Karamjit Singh set them up nicely, as the team cruised to a 3-0 lead.

 

The Railmen fought hard, but could not convert the half chances that came their way. Poonacha struck twice for SCR in the second half, but a Parvinder strike in the 64th minute all but took the game away from them.

 

In the first semi-final, Indian Oil were guilty of squandering many chances as they were held 1-1 by Bharat Petroleum in regulation time.

Ravipal, Jernail Singh and Varun Kumar struck in the shootout for Bharat Petroleum, while Pundalik Bellary, Sher Singh and Jernail missed.

 

For Indian Oil, it started with skipper Deepak Thakur and Vikramkanth missing the first two shots, before Vikas Sharma, Bharat Chhikara and Yuvraj Walmiki brought them back as it now came down to sudden death.

 

Ravipal and Varun struck for BP this time, while Jernail missed.

 

Indian Oil equalised through Chhikara, before BP goalkeeper Swinder Singh saved shots from Vikas and Walmiki to send the holders packing.

 

Earlier, Harmanpreet Singh opened the scoring in the 33rd minute, which was negated by a Jernail goal in the 54th minute.

 

Said Indian Oil striker Chhikara later, “We should have finished things off in regulation time itself. We were playing better, but missed our chances. The shootout is anybody’s game, and they pulled it off today.” Final from 5 pm on DD Sports