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Dabur Mumbai Magicians team during warp-up session at Lucknow against UP Wizards Match on 2nd Jan 2013 (3)
Venue: Mahindra Hockey Stadium, Mumbai (Capacity – 8,250)
Date: 5th February, 2013
Time: 8:00 PM
Broadcast: ESPN (English Commentary) and Star Cricket (Hindi Commentary)
Mumbai - Bottom placed Dabur Mumbai Magicians will get a last chance to keep alive their challenge in the inaugural Hero Hockey India League when they take on fourth placed Uttar Pradesh Wizards at the Mumbai Hockey Association Stadium here on Tuesday.
The Ric Charlsworth-coached outfit has 14 points from 10 outings in the competition so far and trail the Wizards by eight points.
There are 10 points to be grabbed from the remaining two encounters and only wins in the remaining two matches would provide them a mathematical probability of advancing to the semi-finals if their Tuesday’s opponents lose both their remaining matches.
The Magicians have had a dismal outing in the tournament so far, winning only one of their 10 matches and that victory came against Wizards at this very venue.
That victory had raised hopes of a revival and Charlsworth anticipated that even if the team manages to outplay Wizards in their remaining two meetings, they could advance to the last four stage.
But the Wizards hit back in the return leg to return the favour, leaving the hosts in a must win situation.
The Wizards, who were thrashed 0-3 in their last encounter by league leaders Delhi Waveriders, are also concentrating on their games against the Magicians and would once again be looking to keep their opposition’s main weapon, Sandeep Singh, out of play.
The drag flick expert has been the only constant scorer for the hosts and leads the chart of top scorers in the tournament despite his team struggling to win any matches.
UPW warm up session before the match.
During their last meeting, the Wizards effectively avoided conceding penalty corners and that ploy proved enough to frustrate the Magicians. It would be interesting to see what strategy they will employ on Tuesday because even a draw would be enough for them to secure a semi-final berth.
Dabur Mumbai Magicians captain Sandeep Singh said that their team is learning from the past mistakes and will improve the game in tomorrow’s match. “We will improve our performance and try our level best for a good result in tomorrow’s match,” Sandeep stated.
UP Wizards skipper VR Raghunath wants more points in their kitty. “It’s a deciding match for us. We want to put up some points in our points table before we play our last match against Delhi Wave Riders. We are pretty confident that we will definitely make a comeback in tomorrow’s game,” he added.
