MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup semi-finals: IOC Meets Indian Army, Railways Prepares for Odisha Challenge

CHENNAI: Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) drew with National Centre of Excellence (NCOE) Bhopal 5-5 in a thrilling Pool B match in the 95th All-India MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup Hockey Tournament here on Thursday while defending champion Railway Sports Promotion Board (RSPB) stormed into the last four with a thumping victory over Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu (HUTN).

In Saturday’s semifinals, Railways, topper from Pool A will take on Odisha, while IOC (Pool B topper) runs into Indian Army (Pool A runner-up).

In a match which saw both sides play attacking hockey, IOC jumped to a 2-0 lead before NCOE fought back to level and went on to hold the advantage at 3-2. The Bhopal team was 3-2 ahead as the first half neared a close before IOC levelled through Talwinder Singh in the 29th minute. Again, NCOE surged forward through a goal from Parmod in the 43rd minute. Sumit Kumar scored IOC’s fourth in the 45th minute as the two teams were locked at 4-all.

Pawan Kumar Jaat gave a crucial lead for NCOE, with a goal in the 52nd minute and the Bhopal team appeared set to pull off an upset before Manpreet blasted home from a penalty corner to even out things in the 59th minute, making 5-5.

IOC finished its round-robin engagements with three wins and a draw and ended up with 10 points. The strong IOC team qualified for the semifinal with Hockey Odisha in Pool B (7 points from 4 matches).