After winning the prestigious Nehru Cup, Indian Airlines added another title to their showcase when they defeated Indian Oil 5-4 via the tie-breaker to win the 22nd Indian Oil Surjit hockey tournament at the Surjit hockey stadium in Jalandhar on Thursday.
The teams were locked 1-1 at full-time.
In the 24th minute, Airlines got their first penalty-corner. Sandeep Singh's drag-flick could not earned them a goal, but it resulted in a penalty stroke, which was converted by Arjun Hallappa (1-0).
Indian Airlines were restricted to 1-0 at half-time, for which Indian Oil have to thank their keeper, Devesh Chauhan, who effected an excellent save in the 32nd minute.
Indian Oil restored parity in the 54th minute, when Olympian Deepak Thakur scored with a neat reverse flick.
They then mounted pressure in search for the lead but the strong Airlines defence foiled their efforts.
After the penalty shoot-out, both teams were level 3-3, forcing the implementation of sudden-death, in which India Oil's Deedar Singh failed with his stroke while Vikram Pillay made no mistake to give Airlines a 5-4 verdict.
The winners bagged a cash award of Rs 100,000 while Indian Oil took home Rs 60,000.
Deepak Thakur was declared the best player of the tournament and got Rs 11,000.
Indian Airlines' Adrian D'Souza was adjudged best goalkeeper, Dilip Tirkey (IA) best
full-back, Prabodh Tirkey (IA) best half-back and Sarwanjit Singh of Surjit Academy best forward. All got Rs 5,100 each.
Punjab's Food and Civil Supply Minister Avtar Henry and Transport Minister Mohinder Singh Kaypee gave away the prizes. They announced a grant of Rs 100,000 each to the tournament organising committee.
