Waveriders climb to third after crushing Warriors
Delhi rise from bottom of the sixteam tournament with a big win
Delhi Waveriders jumped from the bottom of the points table to third in the sixteam Hockey India League after outclassing Punjab Warriors 6-1 on Friday.
Waveriders gathered full five points from the result and denied the home team even one point due to the huge margin of defeat. The losing team with a margin of two or less is entitled for one point. After the victory, Waveriders are third with 21 points from eight games, leaving Warriors at the bottom with 17 points from eight matches. Warriors have to win both their remaining matches to stay in contention for a semifinal berth.
Waveriders, who conceded at the last minute to lose to Dabang Mumbai in their previous outing, dominated from the start. In the first two quarters, they converted both their penalty corners to lead 2-0.
Delhi’s South African import Justin Reid-Ross converted a penalty corner in the fourth minute. It was followed by Indian drag-flicker Rupinder Pal Singh’ goal in the 17th minute. Justin was named the Man-of-theMatch.
The best from Punjab came in the second quarter when they converted a penalty corner through Mark Gleghorne in the 30th minute, reducing the margin to 1-2. After that there was not much effort from the home side, apart from a couple of good saves from goalkeeper Jugraj Singh.
In the third and fourth quarters, the visitors didn’t give Punjab much room. Delhi’s Mandeep Singh scored a field in the 38th minute and Iain Lewers converted a stroke in the 44thminute, eventually sealing the match 6-1.
“After losing the last match to Mumbai, and that too in the last minute, we were under pressure to win at any cost to stay in semifinal contention. The entire team played to their potential, and by converting two penalty corners in the first half, we put our opponents under pressure,” said Delhi skipper Rupinder Pal Singh. “We have no doubt about our quality and we showed it,” added coach Cedric D’Souza.