New Delhi: A late goal denied by the video referral for Mumbai Marines helped the hosts Delhi Wizards defeat Marines by a narrow margin of 2-1 in their return leg matchup fo the World Series Hockey match at the Dhyan Chand National Stadium on Monday.
Troy Sutherland of Mumbai found the nets in the 68th minute from a goalmouth melee but it was disallowed after a video referral.
Delhi earned three points to move to 13 points and join Chennai Cheetahs and Bhopal Badshahs at the table on third position.
Vikramjeet Singh helped Wizards draw the first blood when he converted their first penalty corner in the 13th.
However, two minutes later, a defence lapse from Vikramjeet cost Wizards and the Marines were awarded their first penalty corner of the match. Ajmer Singh didn`t make any mistake and converted the short corner to restore parity.
Just ahead of the first quarter hooter, Delhi got a chance to score but could not score as they failed to convert a penalty corner.
The second quarter saw nothing much but just seconds ahead of the breather, Shakeel Abbasi's reverse shot took a deflection of Marine's defender to find the cage and send Wizards 2-1 up.
After the chane of ends, both the teams stepped up their ante with Mumbai creating most of the chances. But none of the side could score due to alert defence line on either halves.
The fourth quarter also Mumbai with better possession and seldom let the ball in their half.
Three minutes from the final hooter, Wizards got a real good chance of scoring when Rajpal Singh made a brilliant counterattack but his attempt were thwarted by Marines' custodian.
A minute later, the match saw the deciding factor when Sutherland slotted one past but his goal was disallowed after Wizards opted for video referral.
Mumbai had another chance at the cherry just before the final whistle but they could not convert a penalty corner.
By Samikshan Dutta Choudhury
Indian Sports News
