Match No.41
Day 21: Friday 23.3.2012:
Nikkin Thimmaiah stars in Strykers 4-2 win
* Youngster fires two goals in three minutes as Pune Strykers beat Mumbai Marines 4-2
* Gurpreet Singh (28 min), Mario Almada (34th min), Nikkin Thimmiah (43rd & 45th mins) score for Strykers
* Banmali Xess (15th min) and Troy Sutherland (27th min) score for Marines
Pune, March 23, 2012: The inaugural Bridgestone World Series Hockey has witnessed the emergence of many new stars in the past three weeks when the ball started rolling. This time, it was the young talented forward from Pune Strykers, Nikkin Thimmiah, who took the centrestage in the match against neighbours Mumbai Marines here on Friday. Thimmiah fired two scintillating goals in the space of three minutes to turn the match in Pune’s favour after it was tantalizingly poised at 2-2, for a heartwarming 4-2 win for the hosts.
Colts Banmali Xess and Aijub Ekka, working hard upfront, grabbed half chances that came their way to account for the both goals that Marines scored in the pulsating match. But Gurpeet Singh and Mario Almada restored parity in the second quarter, leaving Nikkin to showcase his skills for a fluent win.
Both teams, who have lost their previous two encounters, and were thus in dire need of a morale-boosting wins, started their rescue mission cautiously, content in probing in each other’s territory. After full-back Ajmir Singh blunted many a Strykers attack, Banmali Xess’ opportunism titled the scales in favour of the Marines at the end of first quarter. Standing close to goalie, he turned a bit before deflecting a freewheeling hit-in that rose high and found the left top corner of the net.
Caution was thrown to winds when the team returned for the second quarter, proved by the fact this part of the game produced three fantastic goals to share four goals at half-time. Troy Sutherland from top of the circle sent a reverse hand, Aijub Ekka intercepted its trajectory to deflect it to the right of the goalie for Marines’ second goal. Pepped by the sizeable vocal home stands, Strykers launched their moves upfront, and staged a dream comeback within a short time.
Gurpreet Singh struck from the first penalty corner. His drag hit Clyde Abraham’s stick on the right end of the cage, took a ugly inward turn towards the other end of the cage, and landed inside. Five minutes later, Roshan Minz pouncd on a loose ball and promptly passed it to Mario Almada, waiting in the circle on the right. The Argentinean marvel couched low to send a diagonal grounder that landed the end of the other side.
With amazing sprints and scoring acumen, Thimmaiah stole the limelight in the third quarter, which proved decisive for the Strykers. He struck twice against the hapless Marines goalkeeper-cum captain Adrian D’Souza, who did not get enough cover from his defence.
Firstly, Adrian committed early and left the cage empty for Thimmaiah to punch in a melee while in a split second the Strykers forward surged from top of the D to effect an acute grounder that wrecked the entire Marines. The visitors, lacking in precision, wasted both penalty corners due to bad stops, and then Bimal Lakra took some good shots at the goal.
Match No.41
Day 21: Friday 23.3.2012:
Karnataka Len has the last laugh in the den
* Aiyappa dazzles with two PC goals as Lions stun Sher-E-Punjab 2-1
* Len Aiyappa scores a brace (6th & 58th mins)
* Harpreet Singh scores lone goal (39th min) for Shers
Bengaluru, March 23, 2012: In the biggest upset of the inaugural Bridgestone
World Series Hockey, Karnataka Lions handed a 2-1 defeat on leaders
Sher-E-Punjab here at the KSHA Stadium on Friday. The result was arguably the
strongest re-affirmation of the topsy-turvy nature of this action-packed
tournament. The Lions, who were struggling at the bottom for most part of the
league, managed to convincingly beat an almost invincible-looking Sher-E-Punjab.
Drag-flicker Len Aiyappa was the chief architect of their victory with two
deadly goals from penalty-corners. In contrast, the Shers fizzled out on the PC
front, convertng just one out of nine PCs in the match, with mosy of their their
forwardline appearing off-colour today.
For any keen follower of the tournament, the writing was on the wall for Shers
in their previous match against Mumbai Marines, which they won only by the skin
of their teeth. On that occasion, Ajmer Singh had managed to keep Shers’
dangerman Deepak Thakur quiet with some dogged defending though the speedy
forward managed to score a goal towards the end. Today. Aiyappa kept a tight
leash on the dodgy Thakur, and as a result, the Shers were left stranded on
numerous occasions despite getting the ball inside the D.
With this marvelous timely win, their fifth, Karnataka Lions climbed another two
rungs in the points table, and are now conveniently placed at fourth, a reality
that even their fanatic supporter would not have anticipated, for, the team had
been languishing at the bottom of the table in the first two weeks of the
league.
Displaying perhaps the best defence that WSH witnessed in the three weeks so
far, Lions repulsed umpteen attacks of Shers to emerge successful in a thriller
where tempers ran high, and Lions captain Arjun Halappa received a yellow card
suspension on account of his team’s intemperate appeal against German umpire
Mark Knulle.
Ravi Pal Singh sent a diagonal pass from 25-yard line which Halappa trapped in
the circle on the right, even before the stands settled on their seats, and
Halappa getting no angle to shoot at, cleverly placed on a defenders leg to
manufacture Lions’ first penalty corner. Aiyappa executed a drag flick that hit
charger Harpal Singh’s leg, leading to golden whistle holder Satinder Sharma
award another penalty corner.
Aiyappa stunned goalie Sukhjeet Singh with his high flick to put Lions ahead as
early as sixth minute. The veteran star again came to the team’s rescue after
Harpreet Singh cancelled out his first goal, with his second stunner which
ultimately turned out to be the Lions winner.
The Shers came back fuming after the early setback, matched Lions with a series
of excellent counterattacks. It was the sterling show of Olympian Devesh
Chauhan, the ‘Wall’, under the bar that prevented equalizer till the half time.
Chauhan dived enough, jumped adequately, fell whenever and wherever needed to
block umpteen shots during the Shers field attempts and short corner set pieces
to deny them any room in his den.
On the other hand, the Lions, despite making some thrusts upfront, fumbled in
the circle to enhance their lead. On change of sides, Mandeep Antil came close
to strike, but his forehand from the top just missed the right post. The usually
sharp Prabhjot Singh could not make much headway as Lions tightened their
defence and would not allow solos.
Young Harpreet Singh fetched the equalizer off the fifth penalty corner. Shortly
later Thakur failed to deflect the ball into the net from close quarter.
Aiyappa, after giving in to Harpal Singh’s quick charges, overcame him in his
fourth and last penalty corner attempt, which proved too much for Shers to
neutralize. Harpal again charged quickly, but the ball got deflected off his
stick and landed on the right side netting. This was probably the Lions best
moment in the tournament and undisputably the most embarassing for the Shers.
Schedule for March 24: (Live on Neo Sports)
Bhopal Badshahs vs Chandigarh Comets at Bhopal, 7pm
Karnataka Lions v Delhi Wizards at Bengaluru, 9pm