An absorbing contest is in store as heavyweights BPCL, the defending champions, and Indian Oil cross swords in the all-Bengaluru semi-final of the Dabang Mumbai 50th Bombay Gold Cup hockey tournament here tomorrow.
Both the oil majors consist of current and former Indian stars and the contest is expected to be a high-class one at the MHAL-Mahindra Stadium.
The other semi-final to be played between local outfit Western Railway and CAG is also expected to be an interesting affair.
Indian Oil are in good nick after convincingly winning their last three matches.
BPCL defence needs to be extra alert against the rival trio of international Dharamvir Singh, who has scored two hat-tricks, captain Deepak Thakur (4 goals) and drag-flick expert Gurjinder Singh (6 goals, including a hat-trick)
BPCL have not had a smooth passage to the last four. After defeating Army XI 5-1 in their opening league game, they went down 2-3 to Central Railway and then managed to sideline Air India 3-2 to reach the penultimate round.
India forward S V Sunil has been their most impressive player having scored 5 goals, including two crucial ones in the quarter-finals.
Manpreet Singh, Amir Mohd Khan, Tushar Khandekar, Ravi Pal and Sommana Pradhan have come up with the goods to add depth in the attack.
The previous meeting on this ground between these two outfits was in last year's final, which BPCL managed to win 10-9 via the sudden death penalty shootout to clinch the title.
