Bangalore Hi-fliers win second PHL final

By IANS

Chandigarh : An aggressive performance from Bangalore Hi-fliers Wednesday not only saw the team win their match against local heroes Chandigarh Dynamos but kept their hopes alive in the fourth edition of the Premier Hockey League (PHL) alive by winning the second of the best-of-three finals at the floodlit Sector 42 hockey stadium here.


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Even a continuous drizzle and going down by two goals in the first 20 minutes of the game did not dampen the spirits of the Bangalore team as they piled up four successive goals to beat the Dynamos 4-2 in their crucial second final of the PHL edition 2007-08.

The Dynamos had beat the Hi-fliers 3-2 in the first final played here Monday.

The win by the Hi-fliers Wed has set up the stage for the title clash between both sides here Friday. The PHL has now witnessed a tradition of all the best-of-three finals going down to the last game.

But the day Wednesday belonged to the Hi-fliers side who came back from behind not only after losing the first final Monday but also going down by two goals as the match started here.

For the Dynamos, the first goal came from Deepak Thakur in the initial minutes of the first quarter itself after Hi-fliers’ defender Lyn Ayappa failed to cleanly negotiate the ball near the goal post and Thakur was able to score.

The second goal for the Dynamos came in the second quarter when a pass from Inderjeet Singh was tackled brilliantly by Dynamos skipper Rajpal Singh to increase the scoreline to 2-0 for the Dynamos.

But the Bangalore team picked up quickly from the first two shocks and equalized within the second quarter itself. Sandeep Michael posted one from a penalty corner to make the score 2-1 for the Hi-fliers. South Korean Hyo Kim then showed remarkable timing to score the second goal for the Hi-fliers to level the score.

Kim was centre-stage when he scored his second and the team’s thirds goal of the match. In the fourth and last quarter of the game, S.V. Suneel posted another goal for the Hi-fliers to give them a 4-2 lead.

The Hi-fliers dominated the game in the second, third and fourth quarters while the Dynamos looked completely at sea after getting a good start initially.

With both sides winning one game each in the best-of-three finals, the real final will be played Friday.

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