Indian Airlines, Air India to
meet in semis

Nehru hockey champions Air India warmed up for the tougher battles ahead when they demolished ONGC XI 7-0 to advance to the semi-finals of the Lal Bahadur Shastri hockey tournament in Delhi on Friday.

Air India will take on Indian Airlines, in the second semi-final on Saturday.

Indian Airlines booked a berth in last four from Pool B with a thumping 8-1 victory over Dhaka XI.

In the first semi-final on Saturday, Punjab and Sind Bank will take on Central Industrial Security Force.

Though Airlines and IHF Juniors finished with four points each, Airlines qualified on account of a better goal average.

The first half of the match between Air India and ONGC saw only two goals as Air India led 2-0 with goals from Davinder Kumar (20th minute) and Roshan Tete (31st min).

But the second half saw Air India in a class apart as they struck five more goals to complete the rout.

Kishore Kumar put them 3-0 ahead in the 49th minute before Hardeep Singh scored the first of his two goals in the 52nd minute, making it 4-0.

The ONGC defence had a brief respite for the next eight minutes but that turned out to be a lull before the storm as the Air India forwards shredded the rival defence with goals from Khushmeet Singh (60th min), Rajpal Singh (61st min) and Hardeep Singh (63rd min).