JOIN USHeavy rains lashing the city on Friday evening saw the match between Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) and Indian Air Force (IAF) being called off at half-time with IOCL leading 3-1 in the Ozone Group-KSHA National hockey league championship at the KSHA stadium.
The second half of the game will now be played on April 30. Gurjinder Singh (6th), Deepak Thakur (11th) and Roshan Minz (16th) struck three goals for IOCL, while Harwant Singh (29th) sounded the board for IAF.
IOCL, the more experienced of the two teams, were aggressive in the initial stages of the match. The duo of Thakur and Prabhjot Singh toyed with the Air Force defence coming close to scoring. But, Gurjinder Singh opened the sheet for them, converting a penalty corner taken by Thakur in the sixth minute.
Thakur then came into his own positioning himself nicely to slot home the second goal off a Vikramkanth cross in the 11th minute. With a 2-0 lead at hand, IOCL were unstoppable. Roshan was in action in the 16th minute when he fired the ball home after a brilliant Bharat Chikkara run from the left.
IAF were looking to restore sanity to the proceedings with a goal or two. Lovepreet Singh and Harwant Singh came up with a few creative moves upfront but struggled to finish. Credit must also go to IOCL custodian Devesh Chauhan who did a good job under the bar.
However, in the 29th minute, Harwant slammed home a powerful shot off an Alam cross from the right flank to revive hopes of an IAF resurgence. But as the teams went into half-time with the match nicely poised, the rain gods ensured they would have none of it.
Change in timings
On account of the hot weather conditions in the afternoons, matches from April 28 would be played at 4 pm, 5.30 pm and 7 pm.
Other result: Army Green: 4 (Romen 6th, Johny Jasrotia 24th, 37th, Arun Kumar 66th) bt Fortis: 3 (Vikramjit Singh 4th, 14th, Innocent Kullu 66th).