Mumbai: Mumbai Marines outplayed Jose Brasa’s fancied side with a solid 4-1 scoreline with their foreign import Troy Sutherland having a hand in three goals in the Bridgestone World Series Hockey at the Mahindra Stadium turf here on Friday.
Mumbari Marines did a great job in the defence and held the ball for longer periods and their skipper Adrian D’ Souza was brilliant in the goal to deny Chennai Cheetahs a victory which would have assured them of a semifinal berth.
A late goal four minutes from time from Imran Warsi, following a set-piece, only reduced the margin for Chennai and made Warsi top the individual goal scorers’ list. It was no consolation though as Pune Strykers, cheering the Marines and hoping for a Marines win, will now take the final semifinal slot. Even as one thought the match ended, Aijub Ekka rubbed salted into the wounds of Chennai smashing a last-minute goal from around the spot.
Earlier in the first half, Mumbai Marines took a 2-0 half-time lead scoring once in each quarter while Marines skipper Adrian D’Souza led from the front making two great saves to stop the tournament’s top-goalscorer Imran Warsi from converting his drag-flicks at the other end.
Marines opened their account as early as the 4th minute through an opportunistic field goal where an alert Banmali Xess hung on to a loose ball and punished it with a stunning reverse hit after teammate Troy Sutherland did the initial spade work. Troy was again in the thick of action in the second quarter when he was brought down by rival custodian Santosh Kumar when he was in about to strike and the umpire had no hesitation in pointing to the dreaded spot. Ajmer Singh, who took the penalty stroke for Marines in the 21st minute drew the goalie to the wrong side as the ball zoomed into the right corner of the net.
Thereafter, Chennai attacked with vigour but all they could gain was 7 penalty corners and their expert Warsi fumbled today with Mumbai goalie Adrian guarding the goal stubbornly. Prabodh Tirkey too made a wonderful goalline save on one occasion.
Chennai Cheetahs may not have lived upto the expectations today, but throughout their WSH campaign, they provided an enchanting brand of hockey, missed the semis by a whisker, and have also unearthed many new faces to Indian hockey galaxy like Sivamani. Vinod Pillay, K. Santosh.
