Indian Airlines win the Murugappa Gold Cup

Indian Airlines beat Karnataka 3-1 to win the 80th MCC Murugappa Gold Cup hockey tournament, in Chennai, on Saturday.

IA shot into the lead in the seventh minute. Bimal Lakra made his way inside the circle and despite being challenged by Ronald Kiran and K P Roy, unleashed a shot towards the goal from the top of the circle. The ball took off a deflection by Dhanraj Pillay, and went in.

Karnataka counter attacked with gusto, but the IA defence, led by Dilip Tirkey and goalkeeper Ashish Ballal, held firm. IA almost scored again in the 11th minute. But Karnataka goalkeeper Bharath Chetri made two good saves from successive penalty corners by Mohd Riaz and Dilip Tirkey.

Karnataka restored parity in the 14th minute. Sandeep Michael sped down the right flank and passed to Arjun Hallappa, whose cross was well received by Lazrus Barla, before he slammed it home.

With Mukesh Kumar and Pillay working well in tandem, the game began to go IA's way. Mukesh Kumar flicked to Y S Yawat on the right. The latter dodged defenders, went to the edge of the back line and passed to Virender Singh, whose feeble shot went through the legs of Chethri.

Crossing over, Karnataka changed tactics, with better passes. But they were unable to convert two penalty corners.

Mukesh Kumar was shown yellow card for hitting Arun Rawat in the groin after a hard tackle. Playing with 10 men, IA increased the lead. Pillay wove into the circle and shot goalward for Ravinder Singh to complete the job.

Karnataka's counter-attack resulted in a penalty corner but they could not beat Ballal.

With about 10 minutes to go, Karnataka went all out. They wasted two penalty corners. In fact, they had four chances to score off penalty corners in the last minute, but in vain.

Dhanraj Pillay was adjudged the best forward. Arjun Halappa and Anurag Raghuvanshi were adjudged the best midfielder and defender respectively.