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Sher-E-Punjab strolled past their similarly named rivals, Karnataka Lions, into the final of the Bridgestone World Series Hockey with a facile 4-1 come from behind victory at the Karnataka State Hockey Association Stadium in Bangalore tonight.
The visitors got their goals through Matthew Hotchkis, Karanjit Singh, Harpreet Singh and capped their win via a superb solo effort by skipper Prabhjot Singh. The first and third came off the eight penalty corners they forced. The Jalandhar side could have won by a bigger margin but Hotchkis muffed a stroke in the third quarter. Another goal by Prabhjot was disallowed controversially for back stick!
The losers had taken an early lead through Naveen Kumar in the 11th minute but thereafter did little of note to justify ending up on the winning side.
After any number of thrillers and fightbacks in the league stage, the first semi-final of the WSH was a damp squib with the Lions failing to rise to the occasion and give the fancied Shers a good fight. It should have prompted their brand ambassador Suniel Shetty, to come down from the stands and take the field himself, but the Bollywood action hero decided to stay put!
The Shers started cautiously, not wanting to commit any mistakes in their defensive third and give Len Aiyappa a chance to take a crack at them from penalty corners. In fact, the Lions forced just three and two of the routines were muffed up and the Coorgi didn’t even come into the picture.
The Lions came up with the first opportunity and the impressive V S Vinaya blocked a backhander by Mohammed Radzi as early as the third minute. Thereafter it was the Shers almost all the way except in the third quarter when Tariq Aziz saved on the line Vinayak Bijwad’s attempt at the far post.
Naveen Kumar got the opener for the hosts when he tapped in a long diagonal hit into the circle even as the rival defence fumbled. Thereafter, the Shers took control and Hotchkis got a deserving equalizer when he bundled the ball in off a penalty corner rebound in the 18th minute after Devesh Chauhan had pulled off one of his numerous saves.
Karanjeet made it 2-1 in the 40th minute when he trapped a pass with his back to the goal and then sliced a reverse shot into the net which beat Chauhan all ends up. Drag flicker Harpreet then came to the party in the 59th minute, his attempt ending up in the cage even though the Lion-hearted’ custodian got a hand to it.
Prabhjot then turned back the years with a dazzling solo effort in the 67th effort, collecting a long hit from his backline in his own half and outpacing the field before he let fly with a stinging shot that thudded onto the boards. It was a perfect finish to seal their place in the title round where they await the winners of the second semi final between Chandigarh Comets and Pune Strykers.
