Chennai Cheetahs suffered its second defeat in four matches in its first appearance on home turf when Mumbai Marines claimed full points with a 4-2 victory in the World Series Hockey (WSH) at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium on Tuesday.
Before a fairly large crowd and amidst a festive ambience, the Chennai squad failed to consolidate the splendid start provided by the Pakistani star Imran Warsi.
Perfect corner
Quite predictably, Warsi was the cynosure on account of his consistent performance so far. When he pumped in a perfect penalty corner in the early minutes beating Mumbai goalkeeper, Adrian D'Souza, it looked as though Chennai would have a smooth sailing.
That, however, proved wishful thinking. The Mumbai team recovered quickly and began attacking with palpable vigour. Prompted well by the seasoned mid-fielders, Viren Rasquinha and Prabodh Tirkey, the frontline found the gaps to put pressure on the Chennai defence.
Though goalkeeper Jasbir Singh looked confident in his work, he could not prevent the equaliser, which came midway in the first quarter through Davinder Walmiki who converted a penalty corner.
Anup Antony displayed enviable opportunism when he increased the lead for Mumbai. A loose ball following a penalty corner save by Jasbir brought Antony in the firing line. A withering backhander left Jasbir clueless.
Rare mix-up
A mix-up in the substitution led to a strange situation of Mumbai having 12 players on the field. Umpire Marc Knulle was quick to notice the error and warned captain Adrian for the lapse. How the technical bench allowed such an aberration remained unexplained.
Ajmer strikes
In the third quarter, Mumbai consolidated its hold on the match when Ajmer Singh put the finishing touches to a penalty corner sequence. And before the third quarter ended, Mumbai widened the lead following a perfect penalty corner flick by Bimal Lakra.
Late in the day came Chennai's second goal from a penalty corner by Sunil Yadav. With three minutes remaining, excitement touched a new pitch with Chennai making a desperate effort to restrict the margin, or even pull off a win.
This was Mumbai's second win in four matches. Both teams have six points each.
The result:
Mumbai Marines 4 (Davinder Walmiki, Anup Antony, Ajmer Singh, Bimal Lakra) bt Chennai Cheetahs 2 (Imran Warzi, Sunil Yadav).
