HIL: Wizards beat Warriors to jump to third spot

Lucknow Uttar Pradesh Wizards ended their home campaign with a 41 crucial win over Jaypee Punjab Warriors to jump to the third spot in the Coal India Hockey India League HIL here on WednesdayDragflicker Mark Gleghrone 10th minute gave Warriors the lead but Gonzalo Peillat 19th and 33rd minute took his setpiece goal tally to eight before Augustin Mazzilli produced a stunning backhand field goal counted as two in this edition of HIL in the 43rd minute as Wizards pocketed five crucial pointsThe win by threegoal margin helped the hosts jump two places to be third with 23 points from eight matches same as secondplaced Kalinga Lancers but behind on goal differenceWarriors were fourth with 22 points from eight matches No team has yet qualified for the semifinals with Dabang Mumbai 19 points from seven games and Delhi Waveriders 17 points from eight games still in the race occupying fifth and sixth spot respectively Defending champions Ranchi Rays have 27 points from seven matches to top the standingsWarriors face a crucial away encounter against Dabang Mumbai on Friday while Wizards will be up against Rays on SaturdayThe match at the Dhyan Chand Sports College ground began at a very good pace as both the teams went for the kill from the pushback Very early into the match Warriors goalkeeper Tristian Clemons had to run out of the circle to fend off a brilliant solo run from the deep by home captain Wouter JolieSV Sunil and Matt Gohdes were posing serious questions for Wizards and they earned a penalty corner in the eighth minute English setpiece specialist Gleghorne was right on the ball to give Warriors the 10 leadWizards came back strongly in the second quarter and earned a penalty corrner that was brilliantly saved by Clemons On the rebound off Clemons the hosts bagged another penalty corner in the 19th minute by playing to the foot of a defender and this time Argentine Peillat fired a grounder to the right corner of Clemons to equalise 11Wizards grew stronger after the goal and with experienced Tobias Hauke and Eddie Ockenden creating a lot of opportunities from the midfield their good work paid more dividends in the third quarter as Peillat returned to give the hosts a 21 lead with another successful penalty corner conversion in the 33rd minuteAkashdeep Singh would have made it 41 when he raced inside the circle from the left with only goalkeeper Clemons to beat Instead of rounding up Clemons he went for an overhead chip giving enough time for Baljit Singh to put it away on the goallineHowever a few minutes later they did make it 41 when German midfielder Tobias Hauke showed brilliant skills and cleared the midfield crossing over from left to the right before playing to Mazzilli who attempted a backhand strike to stun the visitors in the 43rd minuteWarriors tried their best to stage a comeback in the final quarter They even had a Simon Orchard shot hit the post but apart from it they were subdued by the midfield pair of ManoftheMatch Hauke and Ockenden alongwith a strong defending from JolieIt was a crucial win for us Also it was important that we finally managed a win in front of our home fans We are still very much in the race for the semifinals and if we perform well like we did today in the final two matches we will be through Hauke said after the match