New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh Wizards today surprised Delhi Waveriders by defeating the latter on their home turf. The Uttar Pradesh Wizards with this 6-4 win over Delhi Waveriders broke their jinx of three consecutive losses. The Delhi Waveriders who changed their home ground to Shivaji Stadium this year were playing their first match on their home turf. This match also marked the second win for the Uttar Pradesh Wizards, both of them coming from away matches.
The match as expected to other matches began with a slow tempo, with both the teams displaying good midfield and defensive play but the first quarter lacked a lot of attacking play. The teams started pressing hard only in the second quarter and it was the visitors who drew first blood in the 19th minute converting a penalty corner from V R Raghunath, giving a much needed lead of 1-0 to the visitors. The rest of the quarter saw the hosts making numerous attempts to score but some brilliant defence and goal keeping from the Wizards ensure they finish the first half with a lead of 1-0 over Delhi Waveriders.
The third quarter of the match saw similar play from both the sides but none of the sides could find the back of the net and the score remained at 1-0 in the favour of Uttar Pradesh Wizards. As the fourth quarter began, it could have never been expected that these last 15 minutes would result in nine goals, a red card and one of the most attacking game showcasing top class hockey from both the sides. It were the visitors who scored in the 54th minute through Chinglensana Singh, taking their lead to 3-0. The Visitors did not stop at that and attacked again and successfully converting another field goal in the 55th minute through Jamie Dwyer taking their lead to a massive 5-0, but the hosts struck back on the counter attack scoring a spectacular field goal through Justin Reid Ross.
The score now stayed at 5-2 still in the favour of the Uttar Pradesh Wizards. This goal led to an altercation between Uttar Pradesh Wizards PR Sreejesh and Tristan White of Delhi Waveriders and the latter was shown a red card, the first red card this season. The visitors kept on pressing hard and were soon rewarded with a penalty corner in the 58th minute and Gonzalo Peillat made no mistakes in converting it to their favour, giving the Uttar Pradesh Wizards a massive lead of 6-2 in the final two minutes of the game, but it was Talvinder Singh from the Delhi Waveriders who made a beautiful counter attack to score a field goal for the hosts in the same minute giving them a respectable defeat of 4-6. With this win the Uttar Pradesh Wizards are placed fifth in the points table with 12 points to their kitty, while Delhi Waveriders are placed third with 17 points in their name.
The Coal India Goal of the Match award of INR 50,000 was presented by Mr. JP Singh, Director - Technical, Mahanadi Coalfields Limited to Chinglensana Singh from Uttar Pradesh Wizards, while his team mate PR Sreejesh walked away with the Most Entertaining Player of the Match award. Jamie Dwyer from Uttar Pradesh Wizards won the Man of the Match award of INR 50,000 and his team mate Akashdeep Singh 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 Delhi Waveriders and Jaypee Punjab Warriors at the Shivaji Stadium, New Delhi on 2nd 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.
