Shers scrape past Warriors in sudden death

Chandigarh, Dec 25 (UNI) Sher-e-Jalandhar halted the victory march of Maratha Warriors defeating them 5-4 in sudden death and garnered two points in the fourth edition of the Premier Hockey League under lights at the Sector 42 Hockey Stadium today.

After the teams were tied 1-1 in the regulation time, the extra-time of 10 minutes for silver goal failed to decide the winner and the tie-breaker was resorted to. Even in the tie-breaker, both teams could succeed in converting only two penalities each.

In the sudden death, Gurvinder Chandi converted the first chance for Shers while Shivender too was successful for Maratha Warriors.

In the next try, Sarvanjit Singh found the target for Shers. But Shivender Singh failed for Maratha Warriors with Shers' custodian Salman Akbar of Pakistan saving his first shot and then forcing him to shoot wide in his second attempt in the 8 seconds allowed for each stroke.

In the tie-breaker Viren Rasquinha, Shivender Singh were successful for Warriors while Bharat Chikara, Gurbaj Singh and Girish Pimpale failed. For Shers, Gurvinder Chandi and Sarvanjit Singh found the target while Don Prinse, Gurvinder Singh and Yudhvir messed up their strokes.

Earlier in the regulation time, Shers went ahead in the 8th minute through a quick counter-attack. Kanwalpreet gave a long pass into the rival circle and Gagan Ajit, received it and put Gurvinder in possession. Gurvinder gave a return pass and this time Gagan sent a short pass to an unmarked Jarnail Singh, who tapped in to put his team ahead.

Warriors tried hard for the equalizer in the next three quarters but failed to break the rival defence. However, in the 58th minute, Warriors forged ahead after their Korean import Kweeom Moon was put in possession by Viren Rasquinha. Entering the circle, Moon, facing away from goal gave a brilliant back pass to Vikram Pillay, who took a first-timer on the run to sound the boards.

Pakistani stalwart Salman Akbar, guarding the goal for Sher-e-Jalandhar got the man-of-the-match award.

Shers, who got two points from this match, have five points after three matches while Warriors are leading the table with seven points after same number of matches.

UNI