IMAGE: JSW Soorma Hockey Club players celebrate during the HIL match against Lancers on Monday. Photograph: HIL/X
JSW Soorma Hockey Club secured a hard-fought 5-3 victory against the Vedanta Kalinga Lancers in the Men’s Hockey India League in Rourkela on Monday.
Dilpreet Singh (5′) gave the Lancers the lead but Prabhjot Singh (26′) restored parity for Soorma.
Harmanpreet Singh (32′, 54′) and Nicolas Keenan (33′) extended Soorma’s lead with quickfire goals in the third quarter. However, Theirry Brinkman (44′) pulled a goal back towards the end of the quarter.
Maninder Singh (51′) and Harmanpreet found the back of the net to extend Soorma’s lead further and even though Gursahibjit Singh (56′) pulled a goal back in the dying minutes, Soorma walked away with all three points.
Later, The Shrachi Rarh Bengal Tigers made a comeback for the ages by scoring two goals in the final five minutes to beat the Delhi SG Pipers 2-1 to enter the semi-finals.
They amassed 18 points from nine matches.
Earlier, Dilpreet put Lancers ahead as he received the ball on top of the circle and swirled around to unleash a thunderous shot for a goal.
Soorma grew into the game as the second quarter progressed, making frequent forays into the Lancers’ circle.
With four minutes left in the quarter, Harmanpreet hammered the ball straight down the middle to Prabhjot who got behind his marker and deflected the ball past Lancers’ goalkeeper Cotterill Toby Reynolds to equalise for Soorma.
The third quarter began with Soorma earning a penalty corner and captain Harmanpreet unleashing a powerful flick to the right top corner, to give his team the lead.
In the very next play, Harmanpreet found Nicolas Keenan who barged into the circle and found the back of the net with a reverse shot.
Soorma slowed down the tempo again, aiming to protect their lead but as the quarter came to a close, Theirry received the ball close to the goal and, from an acute angle, whizzed the ball into goal.
In the last quarter, Soorma initiated a free-flowing counter attack and Gurjant Singh from the right wing found Maninder in a one-on-one with Krishan Pathak.
This time Maninder picked out the roof of the net to extend Soorma’s lead.
They went on to earn a penalty corner with six minutes left in the game and Harmanpreet stepped up again to find the bottom right corner and make it 5-2.
The Lancers surged ahead with minutes left in the game and Theirry danced past multiple defenders and pulled the ball back to Gursahibjit Singh, who tapped the ball in and pulled a goal back.
