Warriors and Wizards play out tame draw

The Punjab Warriors were left looking for their first win at home when they were held to a 2-2 draw by Uttar Pradesh Wizards in a Hockey India League encounter played tonight in Jalandhar. The teams were level on the same score at the crossover. The visitors had incidentally won the earlier encounter played at the same venue by the odd goal in three and maintained their unbeaten record. The draw kept Punjab in fourth place with 10 points, while UP retained their second position with 14 points.

Punjab came hot off the blocks on a chilly night at the Surjit Singh Hockey Stadium, but they could not make their ascendancy count. UP found their attacking rhythm only after the change of ends, but their shooters too failed to deliver, though Punjab’s substitute custodian Bharat Chhetri had to come up with three super saves in the fourth quarter to prevent their rivals from sneaking to an unlikely victory. UP’s marquee player Teun de Nooijer could not come into his own on yet another evening, and his countryman Jeroen Hertzberger had to plough a lone furrow upfront for the visitors whenever he came onto the pitch.

Punjab took the lead twice through Shivendra Singh (12th minute) and Malak Singh (29th minute) in a game which failed to rise to dizzy heights, but they were pegged back by successive penalty corner strikes by V R Ragunath, both coming in the second quarter.

Former India spearhead Shivendra broke the deadlock when he slotted from close range after Gurmail Singh had squared the ball following a good run along the baseline by S V Sunil. The hosts should have been up by two goals but Mark Knowles muffed a penalty stroke five minutes earlier which was awarded when the normally reliable Harbir Singh upended Dharamveer Singh in the circle. The Warriors wasted yet another good chance when Malak ran clear of the UP defence but failed to trap a long hit and make headway to goal.

Wizards, who looked rather unimpressive in attack till then, hit back through Raghunath, who capitalized on the first penalty corner award in the 25th minute by flicking the ball powerfully to the top right corner of the cage.

Malak regained the lead for the hosts after he took full advantage of a mix-up between goalkeeper George Bazeley and a defender on top of the circle and swept the ball into an untenanted net.

The Kookaburra shot stopper however prevented the hosts from running away to victory by coming up with a number of crucial saves. Raghunath got his fourth goal of the tournament at the end of the second quarter when he flicked home from UP’s second penalty corner, the ball going in off Jaap Stockman. Ozzie Simon Orchard, playing his first match for Punjab, helped the locals gained early ascendancy with Rob Hammond, Gurmail Singh, and Lucas Rey all combining to good effect in the midfield and also bottling up the UP midfield in the process. Both teams had come into the match after wins in the previous outing but could not find that something extra to deliver the knock out punch.