Indian Oil Corporation rode on veteran Prabhjot Singh's twin strikes to put it across a fighting Punjab and Sind Bank (PSB), Delhi, 4-3 in a keenly contested quarter-final match of the Union Bank of India-IDBI Bank-51st Bombay Gold Cup Hockey Tournament today.
Ace India drag-flicker, V R Raghunath and Kothajit Singh got the other two goals for the oilmen while the Punjab bankers scored through Harsahib Singh, Sarvanjit Singh and Mandeep Singh.
South Central Railway, Secundrabad, routed local outfit Central Railway 6-3 in another quarter-final encounter.
Indian Oil will take on Punjab National Bank in the second semi-final, while South Central will meet CAG of India, Delhi, in the first semi-final on Tuesday after tomorrow's day of rest.
PSB started well and got the lead through Harsahib, who rifled the ball in after receiving Sarvanjit Singh square pass from the right in the 9th minute.
But, two minutes Raghunath, who captained India during the four-nation tournament and the two-match Test series in Australia recently, finally found success from the fourth penalty corner to level scores.
Seasoned Olympian Prabhjot scored twice from field efforts on either side of the lemon break to give the Oilmen a handy 3-1 lead.
Kothajit Singh, who was also with the Indian team in Australia, put the oilmen 4-1 up from a brilliant finish in the 52nd minute.
But PSB were not prepared to throw in the towel and managed to pulled two goals back through Sarvanjit Singh and Mandeep Singh to give their team some hope of drawing level.
But they failed to get the crucial fourth goal which would have taken the game to the penalty shootout.
In the earlier all-Railway clash, the Sourth Central showed better cohesion than Central.
South Central's scorers were M G Poonacha, Sandeep Kumar Sanjeep Nelam Xess, Raju Pal and P R Ayappa (2).
SCR were 6-1 up before Central scored twice in the last five minutes. Their goal getters were Mohd. Nizamuddin, Deepak Lakra and Reuben Kedari.
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