Match No. 37

Day 19: Tuesday 20.3.2012

Comets shine bright with back-to back win

Bouyed by their terrific comeback victory against Pune Strykers in their previous match, Chandigarh Comets were in total command today as they celebrated their back-to-back win over hopefuls Delhi Wizards here at Sector 42 Stadium. A win was a-must for the Wizards but they had overlooked the crest that Comets are riding at the moment, though the 3-2 victory margin could have been bettered by the hosts.

Star drag-flicker Gurjinder Singh showed abundant talent and imagination to score a brace though he was unlucky not to add another which was a low-flick speeding parallel to the turf, but it missed the goal by a couple of inches. His striking success, no doubt, gave confidence to the Comets that they could hold their sway in the match at will, but they must be contemplating the several missed chances. The talented PC expert is now the second-highest scorer in the tournament after this match, and he deserves the credit for taking the late-starters thus far in second place with 18 points from 10 matches (dated before Chennai Cheetahs match against Bhopal Badshahs at 9pm). Gurjinder had scored the lone goal in their first leg against the Wizards.

Meticulous in moves and methodical in approach, Comets held sway in the beginning before giving enough elbow room to their rivals to cancel out both their leads at the half time. Vikramjeet Singh will rue his missing of stroke, a lapse that had changed the course of the match forever.

Comets missed two easy crosses in the beginning, and then changed their strategy from going for direct goals to penalty corners, which proved fruitful. Sukhwinder ‘Gabbar’ Singh and Rehan Butt worked on the Wizards’ weak left flank, and earned penalty corners at will. Gurjinder converted his first and third, while goalie Kamaldeep Singh cleared the second and Jaswinder picked up the ball on the goalline off the fourth.

On the other hand, renewed with timely time out, Shakeel Abbasi fetched his team’s first penalty corner, which was converted by Vikramjeet Singh to bring up the equalsier. As Comets ducked themselves into a cautious mode, Wizards sensed their chance and came out with a flurry of attack. Spainiard Leondro from the left served a close parallel pass across the goalmouth, Shakeel lost no time to send a gentle push to silence the vocal crowd that had swelled to full stands by then.

Speeding Ajitesh Roy, off a feed from Butt, put Ramandeep Singh for a goal, but the youngster failed to connect the cross despite athletic dive, against open goalmouth. Coach Harendra Singh immediately pulled him to bench to counsel. The teams changed sides sharing four goals.

Sukhwinder ‘Gabbar’ Singh, on confronted with a host of defenders on the top of circle, backpassed the ball imaginatively with one hand, that fetched the lead for the Comets for the third time in the match. Amir Khan received the deceptive pass in the middle of circle, drew Kamaldeep Singh out before gently scooping the ball into the net. Shortly, in tune with raging war, Rajpal Singh and Ajitesh Roy got yellow card suspensions.

When both teams were playing with a player less, Delhi got a stroke as its penalty corner shot hit the body of Gurjinder on the goal line. Vikramjeet pushed the stroke much to his agony. The Wizards are due for a long huddle after this loss.

Match No. 38

Day 19: Tuesday 20.3.2012

Cheetahs on top as Badshahs fall in 17 minutes

First impressions do not gurantee success in the inagural Bridgestone World Series Hockey. Bhopal Badshahs, looking to earn full points against Chennai Cheetahs in a crucial away match, began well with Pakistani star Waseem Ahmed providing the crucial breakthrough in the third minute itself, but lost their way completely as the match progressed. As a result, the Cheetahs trounced the Badshahs with a 4-1 win, though the victory margin could have been bigger here at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium on Tuesday.

The Cheetahs are now in third position in the points table and have inched ahead of Sher-E-Punjab as the team which has scored the maximum goals in the tournament – 32 goals from 10 matches. On the other hand, the Jalandhar-based Shers have played one match less till now and scored 31 goals but are ahead of them by threw points and sitting at the top of the table.

The Badshahs defence crumbled like nine pins in the last phase of the exciting encounter, gifting away three goals in the last 17 minutes. What appeared a classic battle between world’s best penalty corner executioner Imran Warsi and an unforgiving goalkeeper Baljit Singh turned out be a nightmare for the Badshahs.

After conceding an early goal to Warsi for his 15th number in the tournament, Baljit Singh denied the Pakistan genius any more elbow room in his next nine attempts, but that was not sufficient to see his side avoid an embarassing defeat. Their porous defence leaked in the last 20 minutes of the fast-pitched encounter, and thus all the good work in the forwardline and goalkeeping went down the drain. At that time, the match was hung in suspense with the score tantalizingly at 1-1, close to the third quarter.

A snap penalty corner that came even as the third was coming to close changed the complexion of the game. It was too much for even the in-form Baljit Singh to avoid a goal at the dead end of the third quarter. The Cheetahs were awarded a penalty stroke after a referral, as a sequel to their eight penalty corner execution. Vikram Pillay placed the ball to the top left corner to post the evading goal to bring the local crowd on its feet.

It opened the floodgates in the fourth quarter. Pillay came again to his team’s rescue, trapping a rebound off the goalie to post his second and the team’s fourth goal three minutes before the hooter. In between, local hero and Olympian Adam Sinclair latched on to a penalty corner rebound going wide on the left, to enter his name in the score board.

Earlier, Badshahs did not allow the home side to settle down, with relentless attack. Captain Sameer Dad from the right flank sent a gentle parallel pass, even as goalie Jasbir Singh clung to right post to narrow down the angle. Waseem Ahmad, who moved with Dad in tandem, put the stick on the obverse side of goalie, to deflect the ball into the net.

However, instead of capitalizing the dream start the Badshahs collapsed like a pack of cards in the last quarter.