The Hindu : Sport : All set for a heady climax

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Friday, Mar 02, 2007
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Sport

Sport

All set for a heady climax

Kamesh Srinivasan

CHANDIGARH: Orissa Steelers will take on Sher-e-Jalandhar in the best of three finals of the Premier Hockey League (PHL) starting at the Sector-42 Stadium here on Friday.

By winning ten of the 12 matches, albeit two of them with the help of the novel tie-breaks; scoring 29 goals, the maximum by any team; and conceding only 12 goals, the least by any of the seven teams, Orissa Steelers did show its over-all supremacy in the long-drawn league.

With Dilip Tirkey manning the defence ably along with Prabodh Tirkey and William Xalxo, Sher-e-Jalandhar's mercurial striker Gagan Ajit Singh may find it tough to add to his impressive tally of 12 goals so far.

Incidentally, he has scored the maximum goals, after having started with a low profile. He will have able support from Jarnail Singh.

The strong point of the local team, apart from the possible crowd support, is its experience thanks to the presence of Baljit Singh Dhillon, Baljit Singh Saini and of course Gagan Ajit Singh. The disadvantage is that the team would miss the penalty corner expertise of Santi Freixa.

The teams have a 1-1 record in the league, and that should provide an added thrust for a heady climax.

With the winner getting Rs. 40 lakhs, as compared to the Rs. 15 lakhs for the runner-up, the teams have a lot more to fight for than mere pride.

The second final is scheduled for Sunday, and if necessary the third final will be played on Monday.

Warriors beats Veerans

Meanwhile, in the inconsequential last league match, Maratha Warriors salvaged some prestige by beating a resurgent Chennai Veerans 3-2, on Thursday.

The victory, however, helped the team take the fourth spot with 19 points, one point behind Bangalore Lions.

It was the alacrity and efficiency of execution by Hardeep Singh and Shivendra Singh that wrested the initiative 2-0 for the eventual winner in the second quarter, after the Chennai team had looked menacing at the start.

Imran Warsi dragged a penalty corner into the goal for the match-winner in the dying moments after Chennai Veerans had made a remarkable fight-back with goals through Kuhan Shanmuganathan and Sendhil Kumar in the fourth quarter.

Bangalore Lions third

Agencies add:

Defending champion Bangalore Lions (20 points), riding on Sandeep Michael's brace, beat Hyderabad Sultans 4-2 to finish third in the Premier Hockey League here on Wednesday.

The other scorers for Lions were Hari Prasad and Aiyappa. Sharanjeet Singh and Tariq Aziz netted for Sultans.

Sultans after a sixth straight defeat had just six points.

The final league table (read as Team, played, won, lost, won in extra time, lost in extra-time, goals for, goals against, points): Orissa Steelers 12 8 2 2 0 29 12 28; Sher-e-Jalandhar 12 6 2 1 3 29 14 23; Bangalore Lions 12 5 4 2 1 24 26 20; Maratha Warriors 12 3 3 4 2 19 20 19; Chandigarh Dynamos 12 4 4 1 3 18 17 17; Chennai Veerans 12 4 7 0 1 18 32 13; Hyderabad Sultans 12 1 9 1 1 11 26 6.