Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Wizards will have their task cut out when they take on the rampaging Ranchi Rhinos on their third league encounter of the Hero Hockey India League here on Sunday.
The Sahara India Pariwar.-owned outfit is hitherto unbeaten in the competition and came back from a goal down to hold league leaders Delhi Waveriders on Saturday.
However, the Rhinos are expected to pose a far bigger threat to the unbeaten record of the hosts as the visitors have been boasting of the best attacking prowess in the competition so far.
The Rhinos have dominated both their opening encounters against Jaypee Punjab Warriors and Mumbai Magicians and the way they toyed with the Mumbai defence in the first half on Friday would make any team nervous.
The visitors' biggest asset is their midfield's ability to control the pace of the match and it would be interesting to see if the Wizards manage to come up with a game plan to counter that threat.
Despite managing a draw against the Waveriders, the Wizards did not really impress in their ability to push forward and penetrate the opposition’s citadel and they can be rest assured that the Rhinos would not gift them an inch.
The penalty corner conversion rate is also a cause of worry for the Wizards and captain VR Raghunath, who is also their drag-flick expert, would have to come up with something special on Sunday.
The Rhinos, on the other hand, would be expecting their defence to once again come up with a compact performance as in the earlier two matches and their strikers would be more than ready to pounce on any opportunity presented to them upfront.
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.
Sunday Game - 20th January: Uttar Pradesh Wizards vs Ranchi Rhinos at the Guru Gobind Singh Sports College at 3 p.m.