Chandigarh: A determined Kalinga Lancers qualified for the semifinals of the HIL-V as they whipped past defending champions Punjab Warriors 7-0 here Saturday.
Needing only a draw in their final game to qualify for the semifinals, the last year’s runners-up ran riot with goals from Adam Dixon (ninth minute), Moritz Furste (24th, penalty corner), Lalit Upadhyay (34th) and Dharamvir Singh (39th).
The win took second-placed Kalinga’s points tally to 28 as they and Dabang Mumbai are the two teams who have reached the knock-outs to be held here.
Punjab got off to a disastrous start as they were behind by two goals in the early ninth minute when English midfielder Dixon gathered the ball and ran past couple of defenders on the right before slotting in from a tight angle.
Punjab showed good character after conceding the lead. The hosts earned three penalty corners in the first five minutes of the second quarter but none of them were trapped properly. Kalinga too missed one penalty corner with a mistrapping by the stopper.
But Kalinga corrected the mistake in their next attempt and German talisman Furste fired a grounder to the right, beating the outstretched right foot of Clemons to mark his seventh penalty corner goal and ninth of the campaign.
Kalinga continued their good game and made it 5-0 in the 34th minute as Billy Bakker, from the top of the circle, played a square pass to the left where Upadhhay was stationed unmarked. The India forward hammered home at the near post, much to the disappointment of the home camp.
Five minutes later, it was 7-0 and it seemed very easy as Punjab defence was out of place. Gurjinder Singh dribbled past two guarding defenders guarding the left post before passing to Malak Singh, who chipped from the baseline to the front of the goal. And only thing an unmarked Dharmvir did was to tap the ball in.
Punjab threw everything at the end but couldn’t pull back even a goal. SV Sunil thought to have opened their account for the night with 3.15 minutes left on the clock but the goal was disallowed for a ball obstruction before it reached the Karnataka forward.
Indo-Asian News Service
