Mumbai lads finally proved as why their team named Dabang Mumbai as the visitors staged a remarkable comeback in the final 10 minutes of the game - down with a deficit of three goals until third quarter - to turn the tables on their opponents and register a crushing 8-3 victory over Delhi Waveriders in the league match of the Hockey India League (HIL) played at the Shivaji Stadium on Tuesday.
With the third victory on the trot, Mumbai moved to fourth place in the standings with 19 points while Delhi, who lost their fourth successive match and their third on home turf, is the bottom-ranked team among the six teams with 17 points in their kitty and with only two matches left in the competition, their chances of making into the semis look very bleak.
Danish Mujtaba (49' FG), Nilakanta Sharma (52' FG), and Manpreet (57' FG, 58'FG) scored for the winners while Steven Edwards (22' FG) and Rupinder Pal Singh (39' PC) struck for the losing side.Delhi boys, who looked a different bunch altogether today, dished out an attacking brand of hockey right from the word go but they somehow lost the plot late in the fourth and final quarter after holding on a good 3-0 lead against the visitors. Delhi might have lost due to their overconfidence as everything was going well in their favour until those superb three field goals in the span of exactly nine minutes undone their hard work and put them in another miserable position.
Steven Edwards opened the account for Delhi with a brilliant field goal in the 22nd minute after an exciting first quarter couldn't produce a single goal from both the sides despite having created numerous chances. Delhi went into the lemon-break with a healthy 2-0 lead.
On changing ends, Delhi players look even more menacing when it comes to play attacking style of game as Rupinder Pal Singh, who has scored maximum 9 goals via PC so far in the fourth edition, extended Delhi's lead to 3-0 with his trademark drag-flick. Mumbai players were also getting opportunities to score but they stuttered at the goalmouth on quite a few occasions.
The fourth and decisive quarter of the match came out with a surprise for everyone, from experts to fans, as everybody on the ground was somewhat sure of Delhi's victory by then but seasoned Danish Mujtaba came up with a clever deflection inside the striking circle to reduce the Mumbai team's lead to 2-3 in the 49th minute and three minutes later young Nilakanta Sharma scored a fine field goal which stunned many to give Mumbai team a crucial 4-3 lead.
The second strike provided Mumbai team much-needed adrenaline as they were running up and down to create more pressure on their rivals and their efforts reaped benefits too after Manpreet Singh came up with back-to-back goals in the dying moments of the game to seal the final nail in the coffin.
Source:timesofindia
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