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Dabur Mumbai Magicians played their first home game when they took on the Uttar Pradesh Wizards at the Mahindra Hockey Stadium in Mumbai. The match turned out be another high-scoring thriller with the visitors, Uttar Pradesh Wizards, defeating Dabur Mumbai Magicians 5-3. The UP Warriors, who were 1-2 down at half-time, made a stunning comeback in the second half aided by a hat-trick from their captain VR Ragunath.
Heroes
VR Raghunath
Uttar Pradesh Wizards captain, Raghunath, led his side from the front and scored a spectacular hat-trick. All of his three goals came through penalty corners. His first goal came with a strike that went between the legs of the Mumbai goalkeeper David Harte. He followed it up with another goal through a penalty corner , this time hitting it towards the left of Harte. His hat-trick goal probably was the best of all – a stunning strike where he first took a 360 degree turn to dodge the first rusher, and then took a grounded shot to the right of the goalkeeper.
Teun de Nooijer
The stalwart of Dutch hockey, Teun de Nooijer, brought all his experience into play today for his side. He played a vital role in setting up two of the five goals. The first was when he played the role of a pusher for a Raghunath dragflick, and the second was when he made a decisive pass to SK Uthappa for UP’s fifth goal. Also, his presence in the forward line was monumental for the Uttar Pradesh side and it helped them build attacks from the right.
David Harte
It’s not often that you concede five goals and still have a really good game. This is what happened with Mumbai’s goalkeeper David Harte today. The Irish goalkeeper made some excellent saves for his side throughout the match. He saved a penalty stroke off Luke Doerner, probably the save of the tournament so far. Also, he constantly thwarted UP’s penalty corners, which could be seen from the fact that the UP Wizards converted only 3 of the 11 penalty corners they got. Harte made sure UP did not run away with the game and helped Mumbai keep the final scoreline to a respectable level.
Notable mentions – Siddharth Shankar(UPW), Vikas Pillay (DMM)
Flops
Sarvanjit Singh
Mumbai Magicians’ Sarvanjit Singh looked off-color today. He made some elementary errors, especially when he made a feeble pass inside his own half which was easily intercepted by Edward Ockenden, which led to UP’s third goal. Also, his presence in Mumbai’s goal during UP’s penalty corners wasn’t as effective as Mumbai would have liked. Sarvanjit, though, did redeem himself in the final quarter by scoring the third goal for Mumbai Magicians.
Notable mentions – Timothy Deavin (DMM), VS Vinaya (DMM)
