Kalinga Lancers made a blazing start to the third edition of the Hero Hockey India League, drubbing the defending champion Delhi Waveriders 6-3 at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on Thursday.
Showing an uncanny knack of scoring consistently, the home side, coached by former India captain Jude Felix, found the target in all four quarters to complete its dominance of the visiting side. Rays, who are co-owned by M.S. Dhoni, found the going tough against an aggressive Lancers.
Lancers showed good organisation and worked up fluid formations that gave them a handy 3-1 lead at half-time. The Bhubaneswar-based side’s speedy counterattacks opened up Rays’ defence time and again. With the playing time of the tournament reduced to 60 minutes this year, Lancers looked for an early lead which came through Argentine forward Lucas Villa.
Villa was lucky to get the goal as his shot ricocheted off Rays goalkeeper Lovell Tyler and sneaked into the net before Birendra Lakra could clear it. The third-minute strike pepped up the home side — Ryan Archibald and captain Vickram Kanth struck within the space of a minute (17th and 18th) after Barry Middleton had equalised in the 14th for Rays.
Rays tried to get back into the hunt in the third quarter, but each time it succeeded in reducing the margin, the Lancers scored one to maintain a good lead. Rays captain Ashley Jackson converted two penalty corners to make it 4-3 at one stage, but two spectacular strikes from Lancers’ Mandeep Antil (58th) and Mohammad Amir Khan (60th) ended the hopes of the visitor.
The result:
Kalinga Lancers 6 (Lucas Vila 3, Ryan Archibald 17, Vickram Kanth 18, Gurjinder Singh 37, Mandeep Antil 58, Mohammad Amir Khan 60) bt Ranchi Rays 3 (Barry Middleton 14, Ashley Jackson 36, 50).
Man-of-the-match: Vickram Kanth (Lancers).
Correction
>>The opening paragraph of “Blazing start by Lancers, Dabang Mumbai starts on a clean slate” (Jan. 23, 2015, Sport) said Ranchi Rays were the defending champions. It should have been Delhi Waveriders .
