Air Force loses to Thakur's hat-trick

LUDHIANA: Ace striker Deepak Thakur proved too crafty for the Air Force men, scoring a hat-trick in Indian Oil Corporation's (IOC) massive 6-1 victory over Indian Air Force on the second day of the All India Sahibzada Ajit Singh Hockey Champion Trophy 2012 at Prithipal Singh Hockey Stadium at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU).
IOC, coming off their hard fought victory over BPCL in the title clash for Surjit Singh Memorial Hockey Tournament three days ago, seemed a bit weary in the start.As a result, Indian Air Force, which started at a much faster pace, scored the first goal of the match through a stunning drag flick by Jagroop Singh.
After many attempts on the goal, IOC equalized through a strike of Deepak Thakur's stick from the top of the circle 23 minutes into the game. Thakur then took IOC to a comfortable position with a two goal lead in the next couple of minutes.
In the second half, IOC mounted pressure and scored at regular intervals, capitalizing the cracks in Air Force's defense with counter attacks, as they pushed forward for a goal.
One such counter attack by IOC, built up between Deepak Thakur and Prabhjot Singh, brought them a penalty stroke when Prabhjot was fouled in a goal scoring position. Penalty corner specialist Gurjinder Singh flung the ball low into the right corner of the post.
Earlier, in another one sided affair that witnessed the first hat-trick of the tournament, Namdhari XI defeated Baba Farid Club (BFC) 5-0. BFC looked out of sorts conceding soft goals to give a 3-0 advantage to the Namdhari team before half time. Joga Singh proved outstanding for Namdhari, scoring first three goals and assisting the fourth one, out of the five goals scored.
In the third match, ONGC Mumbai defeated Punjab National Bank by 3-2, as two goals came from Gurjant Singh's stick for ONGC.