Pune: Air India upset reigning champions Punjab 6-2 to lift the third Hockey India Senior Men's National Championship, which concluded at the Dhyanchand Stadium in Pimpri, Pune on Monday.
Air India played to a plan using short passes to completely dominate the proceedings.
Sameer Dad made no mistake to put Air India ahead just two minutes into the game on a pass from Joga Singh. Affan Yusuf made it 2-0 with a superb back hand flick as Air India dominated the first half which saw their players in total control of the ball.
Punjab players looked jaded and majority of the time engaged in long passes which served no purpose.
The Airmen got their first penalty corner in the 20th minute when Sommana Pradhan moved in on aerial pass but goalie Baljit Singh made a valiant save.
In the second half, Joga Singh's pass was neatly converted by international Sameer in the 39th minute while Affan futher stamped their authority on holders Punjab with a thumping goal from the right flank three minutes later.
A Vikram Pillay hit deflected by Joga took Air India to 5-0.
Deepak Thakur finally managed to open the account for Punjab when he converted a penalty corner in the 54th minute to reduce the goal margin but Prabodh Sommana again swelled the scoreline for Air India with a reverse hit to make it 6-1.
The match had its fair share of tense moments when local boy Vikram Pillay suffered an injury on his right hand, leading to frayed tempers between the Airmen and Punjab players.
Air India's coach and former international Dhanraj Pillay had to intervene and entered the ground to calm down his players.
As the match progressed, Thakur again found the net for Punjab in the 68th minute to make it 6-2 but that was the last time Punjab came close to scoring.
Results: 3rd-4th place Play-off: Karnataka 3 (Poonacga M.G. 33min, Nikkin Thimmaiah 46min and Uthappa SK 70min) beat Haryana 2 (Damandeep Singh 28min, Yudhveer 52min).
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