Army XI, BSF in Beighton Cup final

Army XI outplayed Indian Oil in a thrilling encounter while BSF, Jallandhar, breezed past Punjab Police to romp into the final of the 110th Indian Oil All India Beighton Cup hockey tournament in Kolkata on Monday.

The armymen, runners-up in the last edition, nullified a late resurgence by Indian Oil to post a 4-3 win while BSF recorded a convincing 3-0 victory over Punjab Police in the semi-finals at the CCFC ground.

Army XI skipper and Olympian Ignace Tirkey gave his side a 16th minute lead with a field goal before Suresh Kumar increased the margin by converting a penalty-stroke in the 24th minute.

The army side looked poised to dominate the rest of the game, but Indian Oil bounced back and struck twice from penalty-corners in consecutive minutes to finish 2-2 at the break.

Arvind Yadav scored the first goal in the 31st minute before Roshan Minz restored parity barely a minute later.

Changing sides, Indian Oil continued attacking and surged ahead (3-2) as Minz displayed some tricky stick-work to score his second goal from a combined move in the 43rd minute.

The army outfit, however, came back into the game in the dying minutes when Chandrasekhar Khalko drew level from a penalty-corner in the 53rd minute before A Majhi scored the winner in the 65th minute.

In the other match, last year's semifinalists BSF took a 3-0 lead before the break and defended it well in the second half to move into the summit round.

Marianus Lakra, Ranjith Singh and Devender Kumar found the net for the winners.