New Delhi: A brace by Pakistani International Syed Imran Warsi helped Chennai Cheetahs to come from behind and defeat Delhi Wizards 5-2 in their third matchup of the World Series Hockey played here at the Dhyanchand National Stadium here on Monday. Wizards who started well in the tournament to defeat Karnataka Lions 3-2 now have two consecutive home losses.
Wizards who displayed a much better hockey early however flattered to deceive and squandered a two goal lead to lose the match. The hosts, who played a much better hockey than the last match where they lost to Pune Strykers 3-2, drew the first blood just three minutes ahead of the breather when Germany’s Philip Sunkel shot off a Bruno Lugon’s pass found the cage. Two minutes later he doubled the lead with yet another superb field goal to pile up onto Cheetah’s misery.
After being pushed the wall, Cheetah’s forced a comeback almost immediately and scored their first goal of the match just at the fag-end of the first half through Joseph Reardon.
After the change of ends, Cheetahs came out a totally different side and exerted pressure on their opponents with a much synchronised attack than the first half. Their attacking game play earned them a penalty corner in the 46th minute, but lack of co-ordination saw them waste a plausible chance of scoring. However a minute later, they earned one more short-corner and this time they made no mistake as star drag flicker Imran Warsi scored to equalise the score line.
Six minutes later Warsi scored again off a penalty corner to put the Cheetah’s ahead in the match. Looking down the barrel Wizards tried to barge into opposition’s citadel on many occasions but their endeavor was thwarthed by an alert Cheetah’s defence line.
Meanwhile Cheetah reaped success in their advent and scored for the fourth time in the match through Sinclair in the 55th minute. The fate of the match already sealed Sandeep Antil joined the party to score the fifth goal for the visitors in the 60th minute to strike the last nail in the coffin.
By Samikshan Dutta Choudhury
Photo by Hridi P Mahanta
