Chennai, Jan 31: Maratha Warriors converted a penalty stroke in the fag end to make it
1-all and scored the silver goal to defeat Chennai Veerans 2-1 in the Premier Hockey League at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium here on Thursday. Warriors gained two points while Veerans bagged one, as the match was decided in the extra-time.
Maratha Warriors dominated the match and had more than 15 circle penetrations but failed to find the finishing touch as their forwards fumbled at the all-important end. With Warriors calling the shots, Veerans’ midfield became jittery but did well on counter attacks.
One such counter attack drew the first blood for Chennai Veerans in the 11th minute. Following a move from the left flank, Somanna cut into the circle and sent a brilliant pass to Raja on the backline. Raja dribbled on the line and gave a minus pass to Casas Albert near the spot but Casas shot was padded away by Warriors’ custodian Adrian D’Souza. Somanna picked the rebound and gently tapped it with the reverse stick to Pramod Kumar and the latter made no mistake to put Chennai ahead 1-0.
Thereafter, Maratha Warriors raised the tempo of the game and with Viren Rasquinha working tirelessly in the midfield the forwards were fed adequately. They raided mostly from the right but they were not sharp upfront. But they kept up the fight and continued to exert pressure.
Finally in the 66th minute, Warriors struck the equalizer through a penalty stroke. After being put in possession by skipper Viren Rasquinha, Warriors’ livewire Shivender darted into the circle from the left but was stick-checked by defender Raghunath and umpire VB Singh had hesitation in pointing towards the dreaded spot. Dhananjay Mahadik converted without fuss pushing low to the goalkeeper Sreejesh’s right. (1-1)
Seconds before the end of the first session of the extra-time, Warriors earned their third penalty corner and this time Imran Warsi’s grounder was deflected home by his Pakistani compatriot Adnan Maqsood to score the match-winner.