Indian Express: Ranchi fail to make the most of their chances

By Nitin Sharma

Harendra called on the legend to appraise him about the progress made by the juniors who had lifted the World Cup recently.

A day before the match against last year’s winners Jaypee Punjab Warriors, Ranchi Rays coach Harendra Singh had taken three youngsters of his team to meet legendary triple Olympic gold medallist Balbir Singh Senior. Harendra called on the legend to appraise him about the progress made by the juniors who had lifted the World Cup recently.

The talk between the legend and the junior boys also veered towards the need to score field goals and converting chances. Coming into the match, Ranchi Rays had managed to score only one goal out of the 27 penalty corners earned by their team so far in the Hockey India League and Harendra, who opted to watch the match from the third tier of the stadium, knew his team had to take their chances against a side, which defeated them in last year’s final.

However, Harendra was left frustrated. Ranchi’s penalty corner conversation rate dropped further with the Rays failing to score out of eight penalty corners. Jaypee Punjab Warriors moved to the fourth spot in the points table with a 1-0 win over the visitors. Aussie goal-keeper Treston Clemons, who had replaced Warriors’ goal-keeper Japp Stockmann, made sure that Warriors goalpost is as well-protected as it was when the Dutchman was around. Clemons made eight saves for the home side.

With Chrisotpher Ruhr creating some early chances, Ranchi had a good chance in the first quarter. Manpreet Singh’s shot in the 13th minute, first hit Clemon’s back and then the goalpost to deny Ranchi the early lead in the match. With four circle penetrations as compared to Punjab’s solitary one in the quarter, Ranchi held the upper hand.

Ruhr’s shot went wide of the goalpost in Ranchi’s first penalty corner of the match in the second quarter.

For Punjab, Mark Gleghorne and Mark Knowles, worked in tandem to earn Punjab’s first penalty corner of the match. The spotlight was on Punjab’s second major change this season, Dutchman Van Der Weerden Mink. Mink’s low shot on the right in the 24th minute meant that Warriors led by half-time, by which Ranchi had six circle penetrations as compared to Punjab’s three and 55 percent of ball possession.

As India discard Gurbaj Singh showed his form of old partnering with Ruhr in the third quarter, Ranchi once again dominated with four shots on target in the quarter. But Clemons saved a shot by Ranchi skipper Ashley Jackson and followed it with two more saves.

Punjab was denied a second goal by Mink after the video referral showed youngster Baljit Singh had stopped the ball with his hand, Ranchi’s chances of comeback in the last quarter were propelled by Ruhr and Gurbaj once again. An alert Clemons would make his seventh save in what was Ranchi’s fourth penalty corner. The visitors would earn four more penalty corners in the last three minutes with Jackson going for field goal attempt in two of them.

Despite Ranchi having more circle entries and shots on target in each quarter of the match they had failed to score.
“It was one of the games where we played our best and lost the game. We created chances and we paid the price for not being able to convert our chances. We were relying on our strikers and they managed to create chances. Yes, we have close to 4 percent conversion rate for penalty corners this season and we need to improve that if we want to aim for the semi-finals spot,” said Ranchi coach Harendra after the match.