Defending champions Army XI advanced to the semi-finals of the 11th PMC Bank-Guru Tegh Bahadur Gold Cup All India Hockey Tournamet when they were held to a 2-2 draw by Bharat Petroleum in their final pool game today.
Army men recovered from a goal down to take a 2-1 lead against BPCL, who scored in the final minute through Gurpreet Singh to draw the match, but the title holders made the grade by finishing second in Pool A with 7 points.
Chandan Aind and Anoop Topno scored the goals for the Army outfit late in the first half and early in the second, while BPCL took the lead through Sher Singh in the 14th minute of the match.
ONGC had already made the grade by topping the pool with 12 points and will meet Group A runners-up Air India in the first semi-final on August 26 after tomorrow's rest day. Army XI would clash with local outfit Central Railway in the second semi-final, also scheduled on Wednesday. The final is on August 27.
AI made the grade despite losing 2-6 to Indian Oil, who got their goals through Prabjot Singh (2), Roshan Minz (2), Deepak Thakur and P Somanna. Nirmal Chinnappa and Vikas Pillay struck home for the airmen.
Central Railway, powered by a five-goal blitz by international Yuvraj Walmiki, whipped last year's runners-up South Central Railway (SCR) from Secunderabad 6-4. Aafan Yusuf scored Central's other goal, their first of the game.
For SCR, the goal-getters were Sandeep Singh, Manikantan, Imran and Sunil Kumar.
