Post a convincing win against Kalinga lancers on Sunday at their home ground, Dabur Mumbai Magicians is all set to take on the Uttar Pradesh Wizards in its last match of the second edition of Hero Hockey India league. Wanting to keep the momentum running, Magicians will be eyeing to bag their second consecutive win and finish at the fifth position in the league. On the other hand, the Wizards will be playing to retain its 3rd position in the pool table before entering the semi-finals.
Wizards lost its ninth match against Jaypee Punjab Warriors and were held back from securing the 2nd position as semi-finalists. Wizards will not only be looking at securing the position that it is in presently, it will even be looking at going to the next level with confidence and zeal of taking on the opponents.
At one side, a much motivated Magicians' squad with likes of Glenn Turner, Mark Gleghorne, Ravipal Singh and Sarvanjit Singh looks in no mood to settle down all the way at the bottom of the points table and will play to snatch away the points from the Wizards. On the other hand, making it even tougher for the Magicians will be the mighty Wizards with the likes of V.R Raghunath, Nikkin Thimmaiah, S.K Uthappa and Teun De Nooijer, who have been responsible for guiding the team into securing a berth in the semi-finals. The Wizards will be looking forward to overcome their last defeat and strengthen their position in the league against rest of the semi-finalists.
Speaking on Tuesday's match Captain Glenn Turner, Magicians said, "We all believed in the team and it is a good feeling after winning yesterday's match against Kalinga lancers and certainly gives a boost to the team's morale. It was a little disappointing performance in the league but if we end on a high, it will certainly help the performance of the team get better next year."
Speaking on team and expectations Head Coach Magicians M K Kaushik said, "The idea was always to win every match that we play. We have a good squad but a lot of injuries to the players starting from the very first match held us back. The team has worked as one unit in the entire tournament showing good defense skills. For tomorrow's match, the team has to recover and adapt according to the weather and the ground conditions."
Speaking before their match against Mumbai, V.R Raghunath, Wizards captain said, "It's our last league match. We need to make sure that we don't make the mistakes that we made in our last game. After this match, it would be a knock-out stage. We need to play with a positive mind and move to semi-final with a positive attitude." PNS