Shers will test steely Orissa Steelers in PHL finals

Chandigarh, Feb 25 (UNI) The title clash will be fought between steely Orissa Steelers and roaring Sher-e-Jalandhar in the Premier Hockey League (PHL) in the best-of-three finals slated for March 2, 4 and 5 at the Sector 42 hockey stadium here.

With leaders Orissa Steelers, led by thrice Olympian Dilip Tirkey already storming into final with 25 points from 11 matches, Sher-e-Jalandhar, captained by Kanwalpreet Singh today qualified for the final after outplaying unimpressive Hyderabad Sultans by 3-1 and took their points tally to 23 from 11 encounters.

Olympian Gagan Ajit Singh (47th, 66th minutes) and Spanish Santi Freixa (19th) scored for Shere-e-Jalandhar. Rajwinder Singh scored the solitary goal in the 46th minute for the Sultans.

It was the sixth victory for the Shers in the regulation period and they have one more win in extra time to their credit. They have lost three matches, including two in extra time.

On the other hand, Orissa Steelers from 11 fixtures have registered seven wins in regulation period and two in extra time.

They have lost two matches in regulation period.

In the other match of the day, defending champions Bangalore Lions prevailed over Chandigarh Dynamos by a golden goal scored in extra time, after sharing two goals in the regulation period. With this victory, Lions moved up to third position with 17 points from 11 encounters Their last league fixture is against Hyderabad Sultans on February 28.

Maratha Warriors are at the fourth spot with 16 points from 11 matches and they play their last league outing against Chennai Veerans (13 points) on March 1.

Cheered on by the Sunday crowd, Dynamos shot into the lead in the third minute when Olympian Prabhjot Singh fed the ball to Rajpal Singh. Rajpal passed it to Mandeep Singh who made no mistake.

Dynamos had a chance to double the margin in the 32nd minute when Ravipal Singh initiated a move from the left flank, passing the ball to Inderjit Chadha. Chadha dribbled a few yards before sending it to Deepak Thakur whose push hit the bar. As the ball was dropping into play, Prabhjot tapped it with this raised stick but the goal was disallowed.

Bangalore Lions hit back in the 55th minute as they forced a penalty corner in the 55th minute. Tushar Khandekar took the push and Paul Blake stopped for drag flicker Len Aiyappa to net the ball from a narrow angle.

As the teams remained tied at 1-1 in the regulation period, the silver extra time of seven and half minute was give to resolve the deadlock. Pakistan player Rehan Butt's shot was deflected in by Sandeep Michael for the winning goal.

Bharat Chetri (Bangalore Lions) and Baljit Singh Dhillon (Sher-e-Jalandhar) were declared Lions of the Matches.

UNI