Indian Airlines, BSF in Beighton final

Star-studded Indian Airlines beat defending champions Punjab and Sind Bank via the tie-breaker to set up a final date with Border Security force (Jalandhar) in the Beighton Cup hockey tournament, in Kolkata on Monday.

Indian Airlines won 6-5 in the day's second semi-final after BSF got past Indian Oil 2-1 at the Mohun Bagan ground.

The final will be played on Tuesday.

The Airlines-PSB match never really rose to any great heights as both sides played a hit-and-run game that had little to demonstrate skill.

The game finished 1-1 in regulation time and the tie-break had to be resorted to after the scoreline remained unchanged in extra-time.

In the tie-breaker, Kulwinder Singh let down the bankmen by hitting the opening penalty stroke into the body of Airlines' custodian Jagdish Ponnapa.

Though Jasanpreet Singh, Gurvinder S Chandi, Naginderjit Singh and Rajwinder Singh converted the subsequent attempts, PSB could not breach the gap as the airmen slotted home each of their quota of five strokes.

Samir Dad, Ajit Kumar Singh, Kulbhushan Sharma and Osaf-ur-Rahman put the first four hits into the goal for Indian Airlines, before Sandeep Michael converted the fifth stroke to send his team into the final.

Earlier, Brojen Singh drew first blood for Indian Airlines as early as the second minute, but the lead was cancelled by Daler Singh in the 19th minute.

In the other semi-final, Habil Topno and Mandeep Singh scored for the paramilitary men, while Viren Rasquinha reduced the margin for Indian Oil.