Perched precariously at the bottom of the table, Karnataka Lions scripted an authoritative 5-3 win — its second in six matches — over Chennai Cheetahs in the World Series Hockey at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium here on Saturday.
After a sedate start, Lions improved with each subsequent quarter to demolish an opponent which, according to pre-match predictions, was expected to post a facile win.
Skipper Ravipal Singh was the real force behind the Lions’ triumph. The forward pumped in three goals apart being involved in an assist for another.
Lions went ahead in the second quarter through Ravipal. A mis-pass by Sunil Yadav saw the ball going to straight to Vinayak Bijwad, who relayed it to Ravipal and the striker made no mistake.
Ravipal then worked in from the right, dribbling past at least two defenders, and all Bijwad had to do was to push it home to make it 2-0 at half-time.
Drag-flick specialist Imran Warsi was at his best in penalty corner conversion and he reduced the margin with a neat drive at the beginning of the third quarter. Progressively, the host’s defence crumbled and the Lions’ frontline capitalised on it.
Lions didn’t look like a side that was wallowing at the bottom. The fourth quarter was a classic exhibition of attacking hockey. Ravipal scored two field goals in a matter of six minutes by making a mockery of Cheetahs’ defence.
Warsi’s second penalty corner goal was a case of too little, too late. Towards the closing stages, Deepak Kullu compounded Cheetahs’ woes with a strong push home. Mark Harris’ deflection off a penalty corner minutes before hooter, meant little to Cheetahs’ prospects.
Brace by Deepak
Deepak Thakur struck twice as Sher-E-Punjab staved off a good challenge from Bhopal Badhshahs to score a 3-2 win in Bhopal.
The results:
At Chennai: Karnataka Lions 5 (Ravipal Singh 3, Vinayak Bijwad, Deepak Kullu) bt Chennai Cheetahs 3 (Imran Warsi 2, Mark Harris).
At Bhopal: Sher-E-Punjab 3 (Deepak Thakur 17 & 46, Harpreet 53) bt Bhopal Badshahs 2 (Sameer Dad 22, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay 58).