Air India hold Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu were held to a 2-2 draw by Air India in the inaugural match of the 90th all-India Murugappa Gold Cup Hockey tournament at the MRK Stadium here on Thursday evening.
By : migrator
Update: 2016-09-01 16:55 GMT
Chennai
Joshua Wesley (17th minute) and Hassan Basha (56th minute) scored for the hosts while Osaf-ur-Reham (30th) and Gagandeep Singh (58th) restored parity for Air India.
Air India started the match on a brisk note with veteran Arjun Halappa displaying brilliance with his dribbling skills.
Tamil Nadu drew first blood when Wesley latched on a to a pass inside the ‘D’ and beat the goalkeeper with a rasping drive. Air India could have equalised soon but Halappa’s shot was thwarted by an agile Tamil Nadu custodian M Arun Prasadh.
Air India were back on level terms by the half-hour mark when Maninderjeet Singh set up Rehman from the right flank. Rehman found the board with a scorching shot.
Tamil Nadu showed more purpose in the second half with V Veera Tamizhan and P Nambi Ganesh and Shanmugham being the show stoppers. However, poor finishing prevented them from scoring the winner.
Tamil Nadu got their second goal when Basha latched on to a rebound from Air India goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh. Minutes later, Air India equalised with Gagandeep scoring off a penalty corner. The hosts could have got the winner in the dying minutes but S Silver Stalin directed the ball way above the net to end the match at 2-2.
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