Lancers win maiden HIL title
They finished second best last season, but Kalinga Lancers meant business this year as they defeated Dabang Mumbai 4-1 in a keenly-contested summit clash to win their maiden Hockey India League title, here on Sunday.
Skipper Moritz Fuerste (30th, 58th) converted two penalty corners for the Lancers before Glenn Turner (18th minute) struck a field effort for the Odisha outfit, which lost the final last year to Jaypee Punjab Warriors.
For the first time finalist, Dabang Mumbai Affan Yousuf (33rd) scored the lone goal from a penalty corner variation.
Earlier in the day, Agustin Mazzilli scored a late field goal to help Uttar Pradesh Wizards register a 5-4 come-from-behind win over Delhi Waveriders and claim the bronze medal in the fifth edition of the tournament.
Trailing 3-4 with three minutes remaining in the game, the Argentine striker found himself at the right place at the right time to clinically finish Florent van Aubel’s assist from a tight angle to hand UP Wizards the lead and their first podium finish in the history of the tournament.
It was action-packed first quarter of the final in which both the Lancers and Dabang Mumbai created real scoring chances but both the teams failed to make them count. In their first final of the HIL, it was Dabang Mumbai who were more assertive in the first quarter but they failed to get past an alert Andrew Charter in front of Lancers goal.
WIZARDS WIN BRONZE
Meanwhile, Agustin Mazzilli’s late strike helped Uttar Pradesh Wizards beat Delhi Waveriders 5-4 in the bronze medal match.
The Argentine forward struck with a point-blank deflection goal as UP Wizards took the 5-4 lead after Rupinder Pal Singh’s twin penalty corner goals put Delhi ahead.
Delhi, who on Saturday lost to Kalinga Lancers in the semi-final, wasted another opportunity after they were put on the lead by Mandeep Singh, who deflected in a pass Justin Reid-Ross.
The second quarter saw more attacking hockey from Delhi as a result they got their first penalty corner in the initial minutes but failed to take the lead.
Soon UP Wizards started counter-attacking and in the process they scored an equaliser through Shamsher Singh, who guided a straight long ball at the goalpost from Chinglensana Singh. Delhi recovered from the equaliser and went up 4-2 with two minutes into the third quarter via Rupinder’s two penalty corner conversions. While one went to the bottom left corner, the other one went to the right as he made amends for his earlier mistakes.