Ranchi Rhinos went down gallantly to Punjab Warriors in the second semifinals, as the latter moves into Sunday finals to engage Delhi, which won UP Wizards earlier in the first semis.
The second semifinal was expected to be cakewalk for Punjab, as they beat Rhinos in the previous two encounters famously, but today was different.
The semifinal win for Punjab was Barry Dancer’s non-stop tenth win
Ashley Jackson, who very much justified his cost, led the Ranchi’s onslaught and then fight back when things went bad, kept the chances of Ranchi winning till the last seconds.
The same Ashley who broke Jaap Stockmann’s citadel converting Ranchi’s first penalty corner, had an opportunity to level 3-2 score, off a penalty corner he earned just 30 sec left in the clock, but Jaap dived to his right to deflect the ball with his stick
In between its Sandeep Singh who struck a brace of goals to give Ranchi the 3-1 lead, but when Floris jumphed his height to deflect a balloning rebound in the 57th minute, things looked brighter for Ranchi, which it was not to be in the end.
Earlier, a goal of Jake Whetton after getting a minus from hardworking Affan Yousaff tilted the fortune in favour of Punjab.
His body swerve and the reflex goal that hit the top net is a stunner; he was fittingly won the Hero Goal of the match.