The Hindu : Sport : Sher-e-Jalandhar swamps Hi-Fliers

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Sunday, Feb 06, 2005

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Sher-e-Jalandhar swamps Hi-Fliers

By V.V. Subrahmanyam

Baljit Saini of Sher-e-Jalandhar dribbles past Bangalore Hi-Fliers defenders in the Premier Hockey League on Friday. — Photo: Mohd. Yousuf

HYDERABAD, FEB. 5. Three goals, including a brace by winger Prabhjot Singh, in the final quarter helped Sher-e-Jalandhar record a 4-0 win over Bangalore Hi-Fliers in a Tier I match of the Premier Hockey League championship at the Gachibowli Complex here on Friday.

This was Gagan Ajit Singh-led Jalandhar outfit's fourth win in five matches to take the points tally to 11. For Bangalore Hi-Fliers, it is the third loss in six matches.

The star-studded Sher-e-Jalandhar was on the offensive from the word go with Prabhjot Singh and Deepak Thakur doing a superb job with solid support from Baljit Saini who initiated most of the moves from the right flank.

But it was Bangalore Hi-Fliers which came close to scoring in the first five minutes. Prabodh Tirkey gave a lovely through ball from the left flank to the waiting Mudassar Ali Khan on top of the `D' who in turn gave a perfect minus to Sandeep Michael. But Sandeep hit the ball wide.

Soon the Sher-e-Jalandhar combination of Gagan Ajit Singh and Prabhjot Singh counter attacked. Strangely, Gagan Ajit Singh took a break and within minutes of coming back into the field in the second quarter was shown a yellow card by the referee.

In fact this referee was quite busy showing yellow card to Irshad Ali and Prabodh Tirkey, both from Hi-Fliers, leaving the team to just nine on the field.

This was the phase when Jalandhar outfit earned three penalty-corners and all of them were wasted as the team preferred variations instead of the direct hit.

On resumption in the third quarter, Pakistani Md.Sarwar made a mess of a simple chance from close range near `D' when his angular hit went awry after he was fed with a precise, swift backhander by Baljit Singh Dhillon. Soon an unmarked Deepak Thakur showed presence of mind standing close to the goalline to gently deflect a long cross from the left corner by Prabhjot Singh in the 46th minute to put Sher-e-Jalandhar ahead.

After that the Jalandhar side had the upper hand in the exchanges with Daljit Singh feeding the wingers with imaginative passes. And it could have scored the second goal but for Prabhjot Singh's reverse hit well stopped by goalkeeper Bharat Kumar Chetri after the former latched on to a lovely ball on the run by Deepak Thaukr on the left flank. Prabhjot Singh produced the stunner in the 66th minute when he latched onto a centre from Baljit Saini who snatched the ball from a defensive lapse by Len Aiyappa in the dying minutes of the contest to help the Jalandhar outfit score the second goal.

Within two minutes, Prabhjot Singh struck his second goal after getting the better of a closely marking Prabodh Tirkey on top of the `D' to essay a perfect carpet drive to score the team's third goal. As if this was not enough, captain Gagan Ajit Singh picked a lovely centre by Prabhdeep Singh to score the fourth goal in the 69th minute.

Hi-Fliers was saved the embarrassment of a bigger defeat by the alert custodian Bharath Kumar Chetri who stopped a clean hit from Prabhjot Singh and later brought off a couple of smart saves. Daljit Singh was shown yellow card for dangerous play during this phase.

That Bangalore team couldn't get even a single penalty-corner was a tribute to the efficiency of the rival defence manned by Harpal Singh and Kanwalpreet Singh.

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