Mumbai beaten 4-6 by Kalinga, slump to fourth straight loss in HIL
DABANG MUMBAI suffered their fourth consecutive loss in the Hockey India League (HIL) after going down 4-6 to a dominant Kalinga Lancers at the Mahindra Hockey Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday.
With the win, Lancers moved to the second spot with 17 points from five games, having won three and lost two. Mumbai were at the bottom of the table with four points from as many games.
The match started at a fierce competitive level, with both teams leaving no chance to score but some quality defence in both ends saw neither teams taking the lead in the first quarter. The home team got a chance in the very quarter to go ahead via a penalty corner in the 10th minute but the chance went missed.
The second quarter started with a flurry of attacks from the visiting side who were well rewarded for their attacking play in the first five minutes of the second quarter with Gurjinder Singh giving the visitors a 1-0 lead via penalty corner.
Lancers brought more trouble for the home side as a penalty corner earned in the 25th minute was successfully converted by Adam Dixon to make it 2-0 in favour of home side.
Trailing 0-2 in their second home game, Mumbai went into half-time with lots to deliver in the third and fourth quarters.
Just a minute into the third quarter, Mumbai got a chance to open their scoring via penalty corner but that was not to be.
Instead three minutes later in the 32nd minute, things became worse for the hosts as Lalit Upadhyay earned a superb field goal to make it 4-0 in the visitors' favour. Glenn Turner sent a perfect diagonal shot and Lalit who had come into the field after a green card dived to connect it to right of the Mumbai goalkeeper.
A field goal is counted as two in the current edition of the league.
The home side came back well in the 41st minute as Florian Fuchs scored a field goal from the centre between the legs of the goalie to make it 2-4.
From there on both sides went into the final break ahead of the fourth quarter with Lancers leading 4-2.
Coming into the final quarter, Mumbai were in full attacking mode and it paid off well as Gurjant Singh scored a field goal in the 48th minute to level things up 4-4.
With five minutes left from the final whistle, the visitors capitalised on some poor defending from Mumbai as Quirijn Caspers scored a field goal to make it 6-4 in their favour.
From there on, Lancers held on well to register stunning win.
Mumbai next face Ranchi Rays on February 3 in their third home match, while Lancers will take on Delhi Waveriders on February 5 in Bhubaneswar.
