Mumbai: The spectators at Mumbai were treated to an exciting match at the Mahindra Hockey Stadium in the 4th Coal India Hockey India League on Sunday evening. The match ended with the fourth loss for Mumbai in the tournament to Kalinga Lancers by a score of 6-4. The win in the match for Kalinga Lancers have taken them to the second spot in the points table with 17 points.
The match started on an attacking note with the Dabang Mumbai team eager to earn their first win of the tournament. They managed higher circle penetrations and put their rivals Kalinga Lancers on the back foot initially. The Kalinga Lancers defense held strong for the first quarter till they got their first opportunity with 20 minutes on the clock in the form of a penalty corner. The penalty corner was successfully converted by Gurjinder Singh to give the visitors their first goal.
The pressing nature of the defence of the home team created gaps in the defense which was used for gaining advantage by tactical play in the midfield by the visitors. 28 minutes into the half Kalinga Lancers got the second penalty corner which was deflected by Adam Dixon to give the visitors their second goal. The first half ended with the score at 0-2 in favour of the visitors.
Kalinga Lancers continued their midfield tactical play in the third quarter. Three minutes into the quarter Lalit Upadhyay took advantage of the weak defense of Dabang Mumbai to score a field goal and give the visiting team a lead of 0-4. Dabang Mumbai’s attacking intent finally paid off in the 41st minute with a field goal from star forward Florian Fuchs to close the score gap at 2-4. Mumbai kept on pressing hard and were rewarded with another field goal from the stick of Gurjant Singh to level the scores at 4-4 in the initial moments of the 4th quarter. Both team then pressed ahead to try and score the winner. Moritz Fuerste with his exceptional passing from his own half found unmarked Quirijn Caspers in the 55th minute who rammed home another goal passed David Harte to seal their win.
The Man of the Match award of INR 50,000 was given to Aran Zalewski from Kalinga Lancers. The Coal India Goal of the Match of INR 50,000 was awarded to Lalit Upadhyay from Kalinga Lancers by Mr. Surojit Sarkar, Regional Manager Finance, Coal India Limited. The Hero Emerging Player of the Match Award of INR 25,000 was awarded to Gurjinder Singh from Kalinga Lancer, while The Most Entertaining Player of the Match'award went to Matthew Swann from Dabang Mumbai.
The next match will be played between Uttar Pradesh Wizards and Delhi Waveriders on 1st February at Shivaji Stadium in Delhi.
