Bhubaneshwar: Kalinga Lancers did not disappoint the crowd at the Kalinga Hockey Stadium today as the hosts registered their fourth win in the 4th Coal India Hockey India League. The Lancers defeated Delhi Waveriders 4-0 through two brilliant strikes from star forward Glenn Turner.
Kalinga Lancers started the first half as expected on an attacking note and drew first blood through a spectacular field goal from star Australian forward Glenn Turner in the 5th minute, giving the hosts an early lead of 2-0 over Delhi Waveriders. Delhi Waveriders, after this early jolt tried hard to strike back on the counter for an equaliser, but a brilliant defensive line of the Lancers ensured the visitors remained unsuccessful in their attempts. In the course of the first half Kalinga Lancers made a few attempts to capitalise on their lead, but Delhi Waveriders made no mistakes and foiled all the attempts to score from the hosts. The first half came to an end with Kalinga Lancers leading 2-0 against Delhi Waveriders.
The third quarter began with visitors Delhi Waveriders pressing hard to equalise but todays Kalinga Lancer’s defensive wall proved stronger than the visitors attacking machinery. Kalinga Lancers on the counter tried to score a few times but the Delhi Waveriders kept their game tight enough to deny the hosts any further chances to score. A major part of the game happened on the midfield in the second half with an occasional unsuccessful attempt to score on either sides from both the teams. The Lancers still did not lose hope and kept pressing hard, until they finally scored their and Glenn Turner’s second field goal of the day in the 56th minute. The match came to an end giving Kalinga Lancers a 4-0 win over Delhi Waveriders. With this win the Lancers have 22 points in their kitty and now lead the points table with four wins and two losses from six games so far in the 4th Coal India Hockey India League.
The Coal India Goal of the Match award of INR 50,000 was presented by Shri Surya Kumar Sarangi, DGM (HR), MCL to Glenn Turner from Kalinga Lancers, while his team mate Dharamvir Singh walked away with the Most Entertaining Player of the Match award. Moritz Fuerste from Kalinga Lancers won the Man of the Match award of INR 50,000 and his team mate Matthew Dawson won the INR 25,000 Hero Emerging Player of the Match award.
The next match of the 4th Coal India Hockey India League will be played between Uttar Pradesh Wizards and Dabang Mumbai at the Major Dhyanchand Hockey Stadium, Lucknow on 6th February, 2016. The six team annual franchise based hockey league, the flagship event of Hockey India - the apex body governing the sport in the country and sanctioned by the International Hockey Federation (FIH) is being played across six venues in India from 18th January - 21st February 2016.
