— Photo: Rajeev Bhatt

THWARTED! A charging Deepak Thakur of Chandigarh Dynamos is checked by Bangalore Lions' Len Aiyappa in the second final of the Premier Hockey League in Chandigarh on Tuesday .

CHANDIGARH: Sandeep Singh loves to do battle. He carried Chandigarh Dynamos on his shoulders with two sterling strikes that saw the home team stop Bangalore Lions in the penultimate contest of the best-of-three finals of the Premier Hockey League here on Tuesday.

With the teams sharing four goals in regulation period and the first session of the extra time session, Chandigarh won with Sandeep's golden goal after Bangalore, which won the first final on Monday, squandered the lead twice. The third final will be played on Wednesday.

This was Bangalore's third match on consecutive days but it did enough to nearly clinch the trophy.

Chandigarh dominated the play, earned five penalty corners, but it was Bangalore that capitalised on the chances which came from some quality stuff.

Until the fatal moment when Deepak Thakur struck the equaliser from a superb pass set up by Tejbir Singh, who had a good match.

Tushar the pick

Rehan Butt was once again `shadowed' closely but Bangalore gained from the improved display by Tushar Khandekar, who was the pick of the players upfront with his skilful runs and passes that split the Chandigarh defence.

But the player who stood out was Prabodh Tirkey, who played his heart out but failed to prevent Bangalore's defeat.

Prabodh defended flawlessly while Arjun Halappa made some daring moves in company with Ignace Tirkey, Hari Prasad and an exceptionally brilliant Sabu Varkey.

Chandigarh deserved to win for having put up a gallant show. There was intense pressure on the midfield since Sandeep and Jugraj Singh were not at their best at the rear. Countless unforced errors meant losing the ball to Bangalore but Thakur, Tejbir and Balder Bomans worked hard to the delight of the 20,000-odd spectators.

Chandigarh was handicapped by the loss of its Pakistan pro Mudassar Ali Khan, down with temperature, but Tejbir made up in the middle and upfront while Rajpal Singh created a few classy openings with his well-crafted runs on the right flank.

Slow start

The first quarter lacked pace as the teams studied each other, but it was not long before Khandekar rocked Chandigarh with a superb goal.

Halappa set the move in motion with a long and precise pass for Butt, who wasted no time in finding an unmarked Khandekar. Side-stepping a defender, Khandekar sent in a scorcher with Jugraj and Imran Khan slow to react. It could have been 2-0 if Butt had succeeded with his back-to-the-goal shot from between his legs.

The second quarter was a low-key affair with Chandigarh forcing its third penalty corner but it equalised from the fourth in the next quarter when Sandeep fired in from a difficult angle.

Bangalore owed the fourth goal to Varkey, who sent in a measured cross from the right corner and Butt pounced to slap the rebound in.

Chandigarh pressed hard but ran into an inspired Prabodh time and again. However, with four minutes left, Bangalore surrendered as Tejbir worked his way in and reversed for Thakur to connect in front of the goal.

It was again a Tejbir-Thakur move that earned Chandigarh a priceless penalty corner that was gleefully converted into a match-winner by local lad Sandeep.

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