After the hectic inaugural day, action picked up on the second day here in Chandigarh. If the first day belonged to the opening formalities, star attraction, VIPs and singers, Friday saw good action on the field. First, Chennai Veerans kept up their record of poor start, caving in 4-1 to awe-looking Maratha Warriors. In the second and last encounter, easily the best match so far, stretched to utilization of all provisions in the rule book, extra time and One-on-One and all that. Former champions Bangalore Lions and Orissa Steelers finished their normal time engagement at 2-2, and were no goals in the extra time. In the ensued one-on-shoot the Bangalore team emerged the victors.
The first days match between Chandigarh Dynamos and Hyderabad Sultans did not come up to the level expected at this level. The fate of the mediocre match was settled with a stroke conversion in favour of the local team.
The Day One however witnessed a full stadium crowd, presence of four Chak De girls to cheer up the teams. Chandigarh kept up its reputation of attracting crowd to hockey. Despite severe cold conditions, the stands were full, cheers were no less, and also the expected display of public rushing to the turf once the match is over.
On Friday, despite CR Kumar training the team – he was till recently coach of the Malaysian women team – Chennai Veerans could not do well. Kumar said: “We missed the penalty corner chance when we were trailing 1-2. Raghunath thought of dragging the goalkpeer before taking his drag, but the goalie did not move. Not only we failed to score in that way, but in the counter attack we conceded one too. That’s the turning point of the match”. As if to reply to his distracters, Rehan Butt played like a man possessed and fittingly scored a brace too in the Marata Warriors’ marvelous win.
Dilip Tirkey was technically the captain of the Orissa Steelers, but after finishing the formality of toss, he kept his presence on the bench. He is injured and quite unlikely to be in the thick of action. To be fair, despite his absence, the defence of the Orissa team functioned well, and the team was even on the verge of victory. But one man, whose name spells great in the PHL annals, had other idea. He is Len Aiyappa.
The over all top scorer of the PHL – he scored 8 goals in each PHL so far – Len scored a brace of goals, that too out of just three penalty corners. He richly deserved the Man of the Match title, but though the organizers thought of giving it to the ever reliable Bharat Chetri.