Bhopal, 21 September 2016: In the Final of the Obaidullah Khan Heritage Hockey Cup, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. took on the Railway Sports Promotion Board and Air India Sports Promotion Board were up against the Oil Natural Gas Corporation in the third place match.
In the first match for the day Air India beat ONGC for third place. Air India took the lead in the 8th minute via Arjun Sharma and doubled it in the 17th with a goal by AB Cheeyanna. ONGC hit back with a goal in the 18th minute scored by Bikash Toppo to take the game into half time separated only by one. Despite several attempts on goal and circle penetrations by both teams, neither were able to add to the scoreboard. Heroics from Gurpreet Singh in Air India’s goal won him the Man of the Match award as Air India took the win to finish third in the tournament.
Railways and BPCL faced off in the Final, in a gritty encounter that went to a shootout. It took till the second half for the first goal of the game as Railways took the lead in the 40th minute via an Amit Rohidas PC conversion. Seven minutes later BPCL drew level. Tushar Khandker with another terrific performance for his team scoring the equaliser. With the scores level the game went into a shootout.
Both teams had already been through a shootout in the Semi Finals, one through with ease, the other through in nerve-wracking fashion. It was BPCL again, clinical in the shootout, despite an early miss who went on to win it 3-0 as Railways failed to score from a single one of their three attempts. Amit Rohidas was named the Man of the Match.
In the individual awards, Gurpreet Singh of Air India won the Best Goalkeeper of the Tournament Award. BPCL’s Manpreet Singh was adjudged the Best Defender of the Tournament. Railways’ Chinglensana Singh and Affan Yousuf won the Best Midfielder of the Tournament and Best Forward of the Tournament respectively. The Player of the Tournament was BPCL’s Tushar Khandker.
