Title holders Indian Oil Corporation beat Indian Overseas Bank 6-4 in the final of the 88th MCC Murugappa hockey tournament here on Sumday.
IOC’s veteran players Deepak Thakur and forward Prabhjot Singh shared six goals and were rightly adjudged as best forward and man-of-the-match, respectively.
For IOB, Rupinderpal Singh (twice), S.M. Rafeeq and Aman Deep Ekka were the scorers.
With home support behind them, IOB displayed initial exuberance but were pushed back by the experienced IOC side.
IOC’s Thakur and Prabhjot played in tandem to split the IOB’s defence.
An opportunist Thakur broke the ice in the seventh minute with a field goal after Vikramkanth’s initial shot was saved by goalkeeper P.R. Sreejesh.
With IOC’s adopting an attacking approach, the IOB players fell back to defend their citadel.
An alert Sreejesh under the IOB bar made some great saves to deny the Oilmen on a couple of occasions. But in the 25th minute, Thakur scored another from inside the circle after receiving a pass from Dharamvir Singh.
A minute from the break, Prabhjot made the scoreline 4-0 in favour of IOC.
After the change of ends, IOB bounced back in great fashion. Defender Rupinderpal made good use of their second penalty corner to open their account in the 40th minute.
After Thakur made the score 5-1 in favour of IOC, their dominance came to a halt as the Bankmen played with more aggression.
Rupinder netted his second goal via a penalty stroke when IOC’s Vikash Sharma was hauled up for an infringement.
Prabhjot the made good use of a Bharath Chhikara cross in the 55th minute to make it 6-2 in favour of IOC.