Sher-e-Punjab fall to Delhi’s wizardry

Deepankar Sharda
Tribune News Service

Jallandhar, March 7:
After squandering at least 15 chances throughout the game, the home team of Shere-E-Punjab faced their first defeat in the ongoing World Series Hockey, at the Olympian Surjit Singh Stadium, here on Wednesday. Delhi Wizards defeated the home 2-1. The Delhi team came from behind after in-form players Manoj Antil and Gurvinder Singh scored a goal each to wrap up the points. Notably, the Wizards won without former India captain Rajpal Singh.

Shere- E-Punjab, as has been the case all through, dominated the first quarter of the game but failed to keep up the momentum in the rest of the match. The team raised many field attacks and won three penalty corners but failed to convert their chances into goals. For Delhi, within a span of 17 minutes, goalkeeper Kamaldeep Singh saved four shots and stopper Majeet Kullu, after charging towards drag flickers, managed to avoid at least two penalty corners. Kullu was named the Man of the Match.

The home team started off well and were awarded a penalty corner through skipper Prabhjot Singh in the starting minutes but missed out on a chance to score. Soon after, right full back VS Vinaya poured a long pass to Deepak Thakur, who deflected the ball goalwards, but goalkeeper Kamaldeep Singh managed to make a save again.

Later in the 11th minute, the home team were awarded a second penalty corner but again Kullu charged to deflect a scorching shot from Harpal Singh. After three minutes the team were awarded the third penalty corner but goalkeeper Kamaldeep again took charge. In the dying minutes, Kamldeep again stood firm and saved two back to back shots by Deepak.

Just after the start of the second quarter, rolling substitute Gagan Ajit Singh received a well measured pass from centre half Prabhdeep Singh (senior), right on the top of the opponent’s area, but Kamaldeep came down almost 10 steps to prevent the former international from scoring.

But Kamaldeep failed to prevent Matthew Hotchiks from scoring as Punjab took the lead in the 22nd minute of the game. Later the team again got a chance to double the lead but remained unsuccessful even after using Didar Singh in two back to back penalty corners.

On other hand, the visiting side also failed in their effort to make a comeback after missing two penalty corners in a row. Lack of combination was the reason for the situation as Shakeel Abbasi, failed to grab a pass from Bruno Lugun. As half-time approached, the home team continued to play the attacking game.

After the breather, finally the visiting side came back in the match and scored the equaliser through Gurvinder Singh, who smartly directed the ball inside the goal post from the right flank after receiving a long pass by Vikram in the 40th minute.

Finally, Manoj Antil put his team on course for a win after making it 2-1 after he dodged goalkeeper Dinesh Ekka in the 63rd minute of the game