Lucknow: Delhi Waveriders and Uttar Pradesh Wizards, the two unbeaten sides of the Hero Hockey India League, face each other in a highly anticipated clash in Lucknow on Saturday.
Having won two out of two games, Waveriders would be high on confidence. And so would be the Wizards, after having beaten Jaypee Punjab Warriors in their opener on Thursday. In addition, Wizards would be playing their first home game of the tournament, which shouldn't be too long a journey for Waveriders either.
Scoring three wins in a row can be a big step forward towards making it to the summit clash, and Waveriders would do everything possible to achieve that. Keeping the winning momentum going is also important, and that would also be on the Waveriders’ mind.
It’s an 11.30 AM start for the game, which takes the dew factor and weather conditions out of the equations.
Wizards’ Spanish midfielder David Alegre and Jeroen Hertzberger combined brilliantly to score their opener against Warriors on Thursday, and the Waveriders would do well to keep an eye on the duo, as well as Raghunath, Wizards’ skipper. Raghunath made some excellent runs against the Warriors in Wizards’ last game, and that’s good news for his team. Raghunath’s form would be crucial for Wizards’ against Waveriders, as well as their fortunes in the tournament.
Towards the end of the game, Warriors really came very hard at the Wizards, but their defence held on well. That is something that would have impressed coach Roelant Oltmans, who has also been appointed as the Indian hockey’s high performance director.
Waveriders have had a two-day rest and would be raring to keep their top spot in the standings. Drag flicker Rupinder Pal Singh finding form in their previous game, against Mumbai Magicians, would have made the team management quite happy. Rupinder, after having missed a few opportunities against Warriors in the tournament opener, scored via a penalty corner against the Magicians. Waveriders would expect a similar or even better performance from their star drag flicker, and Wizards would be quite aware of his goal-scoring abilities.
Waveriders played a very attacking game, and dominated three of the four quarters against Magicians. It won’t be surprising if they opt for a similar strategy against Wizards on Saturday.
Speaking about the tomorrow’s game Delhi Waveriders Coach Dr. Ajay Kumar Bansal said, “The boys have put up a great show up till now in the first two matches. A good attacking and defensive approach has taken us to the top of the table and we plan to continue in the way. Not conceding early games against our opponents have kept the pressure of us. The ‘talent pool’ has performed very well in the last two matches and we are very confident that we will win the third match as well.”
“The team is very confident since we have performed consistently and won two matches. Our aggressive strategy seems to be working for us and we plan to play according it. We plan to deliver to the best of our ability to win yet another match tomorrow against Uttar Pradesh Wizards.” Stated skipper Sardar Singh said
The Hero Hockey India League is organised by Hockey India, with official sanction from the International Hockey Federation (FIH). The inaugural season is being played from January 14 to February 10, 2013 in a home-and-away format. The five franchisee-based teams, consisting of the top hockey players from India and around the world, will compete for the prestigious trophy. Hero Motocorp Ltd. is the Title Sponsor of the league while Airtel is the Associate Sponsor. Star Sports, who is the Broadcast Partner, will be telecasting all matches live.
By Indian Sports News Network
