Dishing out a superlative display, Dabang Mumbai swamped Uttar Pradesh Wizards 6-3 in their concluding round-robin game of the Hockey India league to keep their hopes of entering the semifinals alive, here on Tuesday.
Mumbai scored three excellent field goals, which count as a double strike as per the rules of the tournament, through Gurjant Singh (14th minute), Florian Fuchs (42nd) and Yosuf Affan (59th).
For UP Wizards, who were knocked out of semifinal contention, V R Raghunath (19th penalty corner) and Chinglensana Singh (30th field goal), were the goal-getters.
It was only fourth win for Mumbai from 10 outings, but it was enough to put them level on points with Kalinga lancers (25) who play Delhi Waveriders on Wednesday in the last round robin encounter.
With both the teams UP Wizards and Mumbai facing a must-win situation for a berth in the last four round, the game got off to a breezy start.
UP Wizards took the first shy at the rival goal in the second minute but Akashdeep Singh’s shot was blocked with his pads by Mumbai custodian David Harte, who had an outstanding game.
Gurjant Singh then hit wide a superb long through ball from his Mumbai teammate Harmanpreet Singh but made amends off a counter-attack later with a field effort, two minutes from the end of the first quarter.
The counter-punch, leading to the fine field goal, came after Harte had come up with a good save, palming a penalty corner drag flick by V R Raghunath. Gurjant tried to pass the ball to teammate Florian Fuchs but the ball was deflected into the goal by UP’s Chinglensana.
UP Wizards were down to 10 men at this time following the yellow card suspension of their skipper Eddie Ockenden.
UP Wizards, down 0-2 at the end of the first quarter, attacked with vigour and forced three penalty corners early in the second quarter. They succeeded with the third attempt when Raghunath beat Harte with a shot that hit the board.
Hard-working Mumbai captain Matthew Swann showed a clean pair of heels with his dribbling skills to get past a host of defenders but he was stopped in the nick of time.
At the other end UP Wizards, desperate for the equaliser, got a bonus when Chinglensana hit the roof of the net with a sweep after trapping a goalmouth clearance just inside the circle to ensure UP Wizards trooped off at the end of the second quarter with a 3-2 advantage.
In third quarter, UP Wizards forced a penalty corner that was wasted and Mumbai counter-punched effectively with a quick move on the left flank that saw Nilakanta Sharma lay an inch-perfect square pass to his right for the opportunistic German Florian Fuchs to shoot home from the top of the circle which completely beat Sreejesh on his left side.
The brilliant field goal put Mumbai 4-3 ahead with three minutes left in the third quarter and the two teams ended it in the same position. Mumbai pressed on even after going ahead and after missing a few chances got a great goal in the dying minutes after UP Wizards pulled out Sreejesh.
Affan dived full length to connect a centre from Gurjant on his left to complete a memorable day for the home team.
FIH amends free hits rule
lausanne: The International Hockey Federation (FIH) has confirmed on Tuesday an amendment to the ‘Rules of Hockey’ to clarify rule 13.2 in relation to free hits within five metres of the circle.
Following the amendment, the rule now states that at an attacking free hit within five metres of the circle, the ball cannot be played into the circle until it has travelled at least five metres or been touched by a defending player.
This amendment, to be introduced with immediate effect, removes the possibility for the attacker to touch the free hit for a teammate to run on to and play the ball into the circle.
One additional piece of guidance has also been added in relation to the amendment. Following a time stoppage after the award of an attacking free hit inside the 23 metres area, upon the re-start, all players other than the player taking the free hit must be at least five metres from the ball.