Prabhjot Singh's fifth minute goal enabled Indian Oil beat Western Railway 1-0 in the first leg of the double legged semi-finals in the Bombay Gold Cup hockey tournament at the Mahindra stadium in Mumbai on Friday.

In the match, mostly confined to midfield, Indian Oil took an early lead but had a tough time hanging on to it.

Prabhojot, who has had a good tournament so far, scoring in almost every match, scored the all-important goal when he flicked home a fine centre from skipper Deepak Thakur.

Down by a goal at the breather, Western were more purposeful in the second session. They had a couple of chances during this period but wasted them and were forced to go into the second leg a goal in arrears.

In the 46th minute, Western's K S B Shanta Kumar and Shivendra Singh broke through the Indian Oil defence with a good passing bout before the latter passed to his unmarked skipper Chandrapal. But the last-named failed to finish in front of an open goal.

Ten minutes later, Shivendra Singh's diagonal cross to Chandrapal went abegging as the latter failed to flick the ball home with goalkeeper Devesh Chauhan out of position.

Indian Oil could force just two penalty-corners while Western got three.

In the first leg of the second semi-final on Saturday, star-studded Indian Airlines take on Karnataka.