Coach Harendra Singh’s Ranchi Rays staged a comeback of sorts with a commanding 7-3 win over pool toppers Dabang Mumbai in a match marked for both technical table goof ups and frayed tempers.
Though stunned by a second minutes two-goal strike by visiting Dabang Mumbai’s Florian Fuchs’ opportunistic strike, Ranchi Rays evened out it with a matching lightening goal by Ashley Jackson (2-2) in the fifth minute.
Field goal from alert Mohd Amir off a rebound from David Harte, DM’s goalie, in the first minute of the second half gave the home team lead first time, which they never forfeited thereafter.
Mohd Imran added to the Mumbai woes in the 51st minute after Ashley Jackson converted a stroke coming out of feeble penalty corner flick off Trent Mitton.
Mumbai too converted a penalty corner out of two they got when Affan Yousaf spotted a weak clearance from Taylor Lovell.
However, the match may be remembered for frayed tempers in the third quarter when Timothy Deavin and Nikkin Thimmaiah had to be simultaneously given marching orders (yellow card suspension).
It was apparent the Dabang Mumbai forward was annoyed on him being physically tackled by Barry Middleton, and showed his anger when he wanted gesture friendly. On this, Timothy pushed Thimmaiah from behind. Middleton shortly in the sequence was seen too physical in defending a Dabang Mumbai foward.
Shortly later, both umpires got confusion when each side complained the other of one excessive player on the turf.
Its clearly heard one umpire giving reasoning for giving long corner and yellow card to Dabang Mumbai captain Florian Fuchs, while the other did the opposite: long corner and yellow card to Ranchi Rays’ captain Ashley Jackson.
Both umpired walked upto TD who advised.
Ultimately, it was settled the card to RR was the right decision!
Moments later, umpire Ripudaman Singh was surprised for the match being stopped. He said ‘I don’t know’ when the other umpire quarried as he walking fast towards technical table.
He walked upto technical bench where protracted discussion took place. Managers of both sides too joined the discussion before it seemed the confusion was with the timing of clearance of yellow card suspended players.
The third quarter which match stopped thrice was markedly different from the early two quarters where both teams showcased excellent hockey.
Ranchi led Dabang Mumbai 4-2 at half time in a session that saw quick goal within 2 minutes from start by Florian Fuchs which survived only three minutes before the astute opportunist in Ashley Jackson who connected a cross (2-2).
Mohd. Amir Khan tapped in gently the ball into the empty part of the goal (4-2 when David Harte fell to stop a bit head of goaline on the left to stop the first close range shot. Amit’s feat came just a minute into second quarter.
The loss did not alter the pool standing of Dabang Mumbai, which wit its 17 points leads while Ranchi and Kalinga almost closing in on with 15 points.
THRILLING GOAL Rs.50K: Florian Fuchs
YOUNG ACHIEVER AWARD 25k: Harmanpreet Singh
MOST ENTERTAINING PLAYER: Flynn Ogilve
MAN OF THE MATCH Rs.50K:Taylor Lovell