Keen tussle on the cards
SS Shreekumar
Express News Service
BANGALORE: Lions do not tolerate intrusions into each other’s territories. They force the visiting pride back into their thickets. The two lion teams of the World Series Hockey, Karnataka Lions and Sher-E-Punjab proved just that in their home and away league clashes. Will the might is right rule of the jungle establish itself all over again or will they wilt under the second onslaught, is the question as they clash in the first semi-final of the championship at the KSHA Stadium on Sunday.
One thing is certain, on April Fool’s Day, it would be foolhardy to miss what promises to be an engrossing battle for supremacy and a place in the final to be held in Mumbai the very next day.
Soon after the first semifinal in the Garden City, league toppers Chandigarh Comets take on the fourth placed Pune strykers in Mumbai on April 1 itself. The winners stay on to welcome either pride, Karnataka or Punjab for the title-decider.
When Karnataka Lions scattered around at the Jalandhar stadium, Sher-EPunjab attacked them without mercy and mauled them 6-1 to give their campaign an electrifying start after the 5-2 win over Chennai Cheetahs earlier.
Karnataka Lions licked their wounds and waited patiently for the ones from Punjab to arrive at the KSHA Stadium for the return leg. As they sighted them, Karnataka extracted revenge with a 2-1 victory with Len Aiyappa, their top scorer with 10 goals, notching a pair of short corner conversions.
On paper, the visitors appear to have a wafer thin edge. If statistics are a true reflection of a team’s potential, Sher-EPunjab are better off both in attack and defence.
The have scored 45 goals, 11 of them coming from the stick of India star Deepak Thakur, while conceding 35 of them. In contrast, Karnataka Lions have scored 34 with Len Aiyappa accounting for ten of them through drag-flicks off penalty corner awards and they have let in as much as 40 goals.
As such, Karnataka have problems in attack and defence for had Len not succeeded, their tally of goals would have been far lesser.
Conversely, if Len had been more quicker in his support for his Pakistani colleague Zeeshan Ashraf in defence, their goals against tally might have been less. Former India custodian Devesh Chauhan has rescued them often, though. With Amar Aiyamma sidelined due to a knee injury, the home team’s attack has suffered to an extent. But India linkman skipper Arjun Halappa, the impressive pair of Arjun Antil and Ravipal Singh have carried on gamely.
In the visiting ranks, Deepak has Harpreet Singh, Gagan Ajit Singh and Prabhjot Singh for support. With local boy VS Vinaya in midfield to prop them up, they can be more than handful for any defence.
Add the German-Australian pair of Maik Gunther and Matthew Hotchkis, and the Punjab team can match Karnataka in roaring louder.
But the expectedly packed stadium is bound to out do them both and the Lions have never been short of support from the stands. It is this factor that ensured that one semifinal was played here after Karnataka Lions rose from the pits to take the third spot behind Punjab on the table. An engrossing, riproaring tussle for supremacy is on the anvil.