Rehan Butt stars in Warriors’ 4-1 victory

In the first match of the day, combining technique with physical ability, Butt paired up with Bharat Chikkara and Shivendra Singh in the forward line to hand Warriors their first victory of the league.

After an evenly poised first quarter, Warriors came in strongly as Butt reverse-flicked past Veerans goalkeeper Sreejesh after dribbling past their defence in the 19th minute.

Warriors kept possession in the second quarter with Shivendra Singh and Bharat Kumar pushing attacks and minutes after the first timeout taken by Veerans, Butt set up a brilliant move which saw Shivendra passing to Chikkara who sounded the boards.

Drag-flicker Raghunath Singh slotted Veerans’ only goal in the early part of the third quarter, converting Veerans’s first penalty corner.

Warriors seized initiative again in the 45th minute with Butt sprinting through the Veerans’ defence after picking up a pass from Shivendra Singh to hit the third goal.

Warriors’ defence was guarded well by Ajmer Singh, and to some extent by Viren Rasqinha, who did not allow much elbow-room to the Veerans’ attack as Butt had a another clean move at the other end. His pass to Chikkara ended with a diving Shivendra, who made it 4-1.

In today’s second match, Bangalore Hi-Fliers managed to put pressure on the Orissa Steelers’ defence in the first two quarters on account of a hardworking mid-field.

But Orissa Steelers managed to make the first major move of the match, earning a penalty corner in the 23rd minute. It was followed by a costly miss by Hi-Fliers’ defence which saw Eliazer Ekka scoring the first goal for Steelers, beating Hi-Fliers’ goalkeeper Bharat Chetri.

But there was a noticeable vibrancy in the end of the third quarter, which gave the Steelers’ defence some scary moments. While Gurpreet managed to ward off the first penalty corner for Hi-Fliers, the second one was promptly tapped in by drag-flicker Len Aiyappa for the equaliser. When William Xalco scored from a fluent move involving Birender and Ignace Tirkey converting the third of Steelers’ five penalty corners, it did appear that Steelers were settling down to a rhythm.

But Hi-Fliers’ forward line played in tandem with their defenders displaying fast, skilful hockey and kept Steelers on the backfoot for most of the fourth quarter with Len Aiyappa scoring the equaliser via a penalty corner with just two minutes left.

With extra time remaining barren, the match went into the tie-breaker. For Bangalore Hi-Fliers Vimal, Arjun, Vikramkanth and Sandeep Michael netted goals, while Ignace Tirkey, Prabodh Tirkey and Roshan Minz sounded the board for the Steelers.