Army XI held their nerveS to move into the final with an 8-6 victory over Air India in the Chief Minister Yeddyurappa all-India invitational hockey tournament here on Saturday.
Army will take on IOCL, who earlier defeated BPCL 3-2, in the final on Sunday. In a match that went down to the wire and was decided on penalty strokes, the teams were level 3-all after the regulation period.
For Air India, Sameer Dad (1st minute), Dhanraj Pillay (22nd) and Sandeep Michael (38th) scored, while Chitaranjan Singh (35th), Mukesh Lakra (42nd) and Ignace Tirkey (67th) were on target. With the teams failing to break the deadlock in extratime, the match went into penalty strokes. While Army converted all their five strokes, V.S. Vinaya failed to deliver for Air India.