By IANS
Chandigarh : Champions of the inaugural Premier Hockey League, Hyderabad Sultans, kept their semi-final chances alive with a convincing 5-3 victory over Chennai Veerans in the fourth edition of the championship at the Sector 42 Hockey Stadium here Tuesday.
In a high-scoring match, Sultans seized the initiative early in the game, taking a 3-0 lead.
However, Veerans pulled two goals back through their specialist drag-flicker Raghunath and kept themselves in the race. But the relentless Sultans added two more goals to finish the match 5-3.
Sultans took the lead in the very fifth minute through Bikas Toppo and within two minutes the score was doubled as the up and coming drag-flicker Diwakar Ram, struck from the first of their three penalty corners.
Sardara Singh then added one more for Sultans in the 14th minute, deflecting into goal Pakistani Adnan Maqsood’s stinging shot.
However, Veerans put up a determined fight and scored another goal in the 16th minute through a penalty corner conversion by Raghunath. Six minutes later, Raghunath scored his second goal, again from a short corner.
Sultans took the sting out of the match and put paid to the hopes of Veerans with two goals in the space of five minutes — first a penalty corner conversion by Diwakar and then Sardara scoring on his own.
Sardara went on a solo run feinting past two defenders and cut into the circle from the right before Veerans’ custodian Sreejesh rushed at him but he pulled the ball to his right with a swift body dodge and then dived and slapped the ball into the goal from an acute angle.
However, Veerans scored their third goal through Dutch import Joost van Den, but it turned out to be too little too late for them.
The Chennai side finished their engagements to take the wooden spoon and will now be relegated from the premier division.
Sardara Singh was declared the man-of-the-match.