MUMBAI, OCT 11: Star-studded Indian Airlines made heavy weather of their pre-quarter-final encounter against Army XI in 38th BHA Gold Cup hockey tournament. Thanks to goalkeeper Ashish Ballal, who brought off three saves in regulation time and one in the tie-breaker, they eventually scraped through after regulation time ended goalless at the Mahindra Stadium, Churchgate, today.In the other pre-quarter-final clashes, Air-India had things their own way when they beat Indian Hockey Federation Junior XI with a goal in each half and Punjab Police, Jalandhar, got off to a flying start when they steamrolled Bhopal XI.The Airlines-Army XI match drew large yawns. Airlines began sluggishly and had their first look at goal in the 20th minute through a penalty-corner which turned out to be abortive.Airlines enforced two more abortive penalty-corners before Olympian right-winger Mukesh Kumar brought the crowd to their feet with two dazzling runs. The first resulted in a stroke in the 27th minute. ButInternational Sameer Dad pushed wide from the `spot'. The other opportunity went abegging as International spearhead Altaf-Ur-Rehman failed to trap Mukesh's cross at the goalmouth.Army XI had two chances in the first-half. Goalkeeper Ballal thwarted the first try by palming the ball to safety following a stiff penalty-corner strike by Army XI defender KK Poonacha who had a good day. Next, Basu Horo's reverse hit went wide off the target, following a well-measured pass from the left by Kamal Horo.In the second-half, the Airlines attack went to pieces after Mukesh left the field with an injury in the 45th minute. They just ran out of ideas of penetrating the crowded defence the soldiers put up and hardly made any impression with the four penalty-corners they enforced during the second session.At the other end, goalkeeper Ballal kept out another stiff penalty-corner strike by Poonacha in the 47th minute and then came to his side's rescue at the fag end by charging out and foiling D Ravi, who had brokenfree following a fine through pass by Kamal Horo.In the tie-breaker, Sameer Dad, Brojen Singh and Bimal Lakra converted their pushes after Altaf-ur-Rehman's push had crashed into the upright. Poonacha and Premjit Singh were on target for Army XI. Asif Ali and Basu Horo drove their pushes onto the upright and Ravi Kumar's effort was saved by goalkeeper Ballal.OTHER RESULTSPunjab Police 8 (Daljit Singh Dhillon 3, Harinder Singh 2, Ramandeep Grewal, Gursewak Singh 2) bt Bhopal XI 1 (Suraj-ul-Haq); Air-India 2 (Cornelius D'Costa, Anil Aldrin) bt IHF Junior XI 0.Q-F LINE-UPIndian Airlines vs Punjab Sind BankBharat Petroleum vs Central RailwayAir-India vs Sikh RegimentRail Coach Factory vs Punjab Police
