Mumbai Magicians go down 2-4 to Punjab Warriors

TNN

MUMBAI: Mumbai Magicians and Punjab Warriors were looking for that elusive win. And on Sunday, at Churchgate’s Mahindra Stadium ground, Punjab defeated Mumbai 4-2 to log their first win and five crucial points.

For Mumbai, it was three defeats in a row, this time in front of a supportive home crowd.

That the game witnessed six goals would suggest it was a thriller. Unfortunately though, it was far from that. Punjab opened the scoring in the very first minute when Dharamveer Singh slotted the ball home. Mumbai equalised seven minutes later through Satbir Singh. But after the early thrills it was a sordid affair.

Adding to the uninspiring brand of hockey dished out by the two teams, was a technical snag with the floodlights. The game had to be stalled for more than an hour after a fuse went off. And when play finally resumed minutes before half time, Mumbai got their second goal through a Sandeep Singh short corner conversion.

The teams changed ends, but the brand of hockey remained poor. The third quarter remained unproductive. But Punjab lit up proceedings in the final quarter with an unbelievably inspired performance.

The turnaround happened with a Russel Ford reverse hit crashing on to the horizontal. And moments later, Jamie Dwyer scored a cheeky goal to help Punjab draw level. Soon, S V Sunil found an unmarked Ranjit Singh in the D and the latter did the needful.

Punjab led 3-2 and were content with playing to the clock. But Sunil took advantage of a defensive lapse in the Mumbai half and set up Dharamveer to seal it for the visitors.

The last quarter saw Punjab field twelve players due to which the hosts played the period under protest.