HIL | Royals hold nerve to shoot outHILGC, boost their chances of qualification

In an edge-of-the seat thriller, Ranchi Royals beat HIL GC via penalty shootout to boost its chances of making it to the final stages of the Hockey India League at the Kalinga Stadium here on Monday.

After a high-scoring 4-4 affair that swung both ways, Royals held their nerve to win their first tie-breaker 4-1.

Following a goalless first quarter, the second period turned out to be an action-packed one in which either team had two short corners.

Tom Boon’s penalty corner conversion in the 18th minute was disallowed, but Royals did not have to wait much. Mandeep Singh stole the ball from a defender to execute a shot and the strapping Araijeet Singh Hundal pounced on the rebound to hammer home a reverse hit.

HIL GC equalised by converting its second short corner. Kane Russell’s shot ricocheted off custodian Suraj Karkera and an unchallenged Lalit Upadhyay completed the formalities by tapping it in.

With the Royals midfield gelling well, Jack Waller created a nice opportunity and the Mandeep-Hundal combine worked successfully again.

Mandeep’s shot rebounded off goalkeeper James Mazarelo and Hundal found the target with a low hit.

HIL GC bounced back, with Russell beating Karkera on the left off a short corner, when Royals were down to 10 men.

Sudip Chirmako utilised a fine cross from Jasjit Singh Kular from left to score spectacularly and put HIL GC in the lead, but Sam Lane slotted one to level the scores.

After end-to-end action, Upadhyay scored from a defensive lapse to regain the lead for HIL GC.

Royals survived despite conceding five penalty corners in the 56th minute before equalising again through Boon’s strike to enforce the shootout.

Vishnukant Singh, Lane, Maxime van Oost and Boon found the mark for Royals, while Ajeet Yadav was the lone scorer for HIL GC in the tie-breaker.

The result:

Ranchi Royals 4 (Araijeet Singh 19, 32, Lane 40, Boon 57-pc) drew with HIL GC 4 (Upadhyay 25-pc, 53, Russell 36-pc, Chirmako 39); Ranchi Royals won the shootout 4-1.