Delhi and Ranchi to fight for HIL crown

By Arnab Lall Seal, TNN

HIL summit clash

RANCHI: Delhi Waveriders lived up to their billing as the best team in the Hockey India League and expectedly reached the final, where they will take on Ranchi Rhinos at the Astroturf Hockey Stadium on Sunday.

Against Jamie Dwyer’s Punjab Warriors, the Waveriders were easily the better side on Saturday, easily winning the match 3-1. Andres Mir Bell, Rupinder Pal Singh and Lloyd Norris Jones scored for

the Delhi franchisee while Dwyer scored the lone goal for Warriors.

Earlier, with the home crowd cheering them on, Rhinos won their semifinal against UP Wizards with a 4-2 verdict where Mandeep Singh and Nick Wilson scored twice. For Wizards, the goals came from Nitin Thimmaiah, but they were not enough to stop the rampaging Rhinos.

In the Delhi-Punjab face-off, Andres Mir Bell put Waveriders in the front 12 minutes into the game after a great team work with Rupinder Pal Singh. It was their first penalty corner and Rupinder fooled the opposition by the faking the shot.

He gave it to Bell, who was standing beside him, and he smashed it into the net past Bharat Chhetri, who came in place of regular keeper Jaap Stockmann.

Waveriders doubled their lead in the second quarter with Rupinder converting it with ease. Chhetri, who got the chance to prove himself, failed to keep out the ball after it had taken a deflection off a Warriors player.

But with one minute to go in the second quarter, Warriors skipper Jamie Dwyer reduced the lead with a brilliant flick past the keeper.

Mandeep leads Rhino stampede

Many have termed Mandeep Singh as the find of the tournament and he did not disappoint in the first semifinal here. Not only did the teenaged Rhino open the scoring for the hosts, he also scored a blinder in the dying minutes of the match against Wizards to take Ranchi into the final.

With just five minutes remaining, he received a long ball and ran through the rival defence and into their D. Even though he could have played it to Jackson, who was waiting at the goalmouth, he lobbed the ball over the diving keeper and then chipped it into the net. The crowd went wild.

Earlier, the home team couldn’t have asked for a better start. It was a misunderstanding between the Wizards custodian George Bazeley and the defender as the ball dropped in front of them and went towards goal.

With Ashley Jackson cutting them of, it was left to Mandeep Singh to sound the board and he made no mistake in smashing it in four minutes into the game.