Airmen fly high

Class, they say, remains forever. Dhanraj Pillay attributed this fact on Wednesday as Air India showed the difference between boys and men in their 4-0 drubbing of Panposh XI in a 47th Bombay Gold Cup match at the Mahindra Stadium on Wednesday.

Pillay played an anchor’s role in the airmen’s win against the youngsters from Orissa, who looked completely clueless as their defence was kept on toes for most of the duration. Watching Pillay beat defenders with his stick work — to watch him lunge forward to grab the ball and find players easily with his passes — was a throwback to his glorious past. Most of the times, it looked like Panposh stood in appreciation, allowing Pillay to go past them with such ease.

While Pillay’s story was of revisiting the past, the match later in the day saw a player who is still trying to set his future, emulating the legend.

Indian Oil’s (IOC) Hamza Mujtaba scored four goals, including two magnificent reverse flicks as the Bangalore side thrashed former Mumbai and Gold Cup champions Western Railway (WR) 9-1 in a embarrassingly one-sided encounter. The centre forward has been playing for IOC for the last nine years and is still awaiting his big break in the national side.

“I was a part of the junior team in 2003 that travelled to Poland but since then, it’s not been an easy ride for me,” the 26-year-old Delhi lad said.

After grabbing an early lead, WR completely lost the plot and were ripped apart by the oilmen. They looked completely off colour and ran out of gas at the start of the second half and IOC took complete advantage of it.