The regular first charger Manpreet Singh Sr was injured after the first quarter. Dominating Uttar Pradesh Wizards were creating penalty corners with rhythmic regularity what with tried and trusted experts Rio Olympics top scorer Gonzalo Peillat and VR Raghunath in its ranks to fructify them.
But the game threw a saviour for Ranchi Rays in Jr World Cup goldie Sumit. Following the spirit and daredevilry shown by first Fergus Kavanagh and Manpreet Singh, the Sonepat lad ran a few suicidal charges as a first charger to deny any worthy shots emanate from either of the two known penalty corner executioners.
This in a nutshell is the story of Match No.14 of 5th Hockey India League, last home match for the Ranchi Rays. The home team’s defence quelled any number of other scoring chances of Wizards, as the match would end 0-0.
Sumit was fittingly declared Man of the Match, besides Young Achiever.
Ranchi Rays had its share of attacks, though considerably lesser than their rivals, but the goals were not coming. At least thrice Mohd Amir Khan had a had in the missed woes. Once his shot hit the right post and spurned back into the game, twice he harried his shots off excellent feeds.
The hosts Ranchi Rays held dominating Uttar Pradesh Wizards 0-0 at half time. The goaless first half saw plenty of cards and five penalty corners in all, but the scoreboard did not move.
In the second half, UPW got four more but Sumit had other ideas.
Its second goalless draw match for Ranchi as it was against DWR in the first week of HIL.
With today’s two points, Ranchi moves to third spot in the table (7 matches, 2 win, 3 draw, 2 defeat) while having played only three matches (1 draw, 1 win, 1 loss) UPW is placed just below.
The action moves to Bhubneswar where Kalinga will play Dabang Mumbai.
AWARDS
THRILLING GOAL Rs.50K: No goals scoredB
YOUNG ACHIEVER AWARD 25k: Sumit
MOST ENTERTAINING PLAYER: Aubel
MAN OF THE MATCH Rs.50K:Sumit