Bhubaneswar: Riding on a brace by their prolific striker Glenn Turner, hosts Kalinga Lancers scraped past formidable Ranchi Rays 4-2 in a nail-biting match of HIL-V at the Kalinga Stadium here Monday. This was Kalinga Lancers’ second consecutive victory on their home ground. Lancers thus took their tally to 10 points from two games. Turner first converted a penalty stroke in the 43rd minute and then scored a field goal in the 50th minute.
Lancers started on an aggressive note, but it was the Rays who took control soon. They earned two penalty corners in the first quarter. However, on the first occasion, Lancers’ custodian Abhinav Pandey made a brilliant save, while the second shot was blocked by the hosts’ defenders. In the 12th minute a combined move by Ranchi again found Pandey as the ‘Rock of Gibraltar’.
Immediately at the start of the second quarter, Lancers had a golden opportunity to go up. However, Billy Bakker was a bit late in reacting to a through ball and the Ranchi defenders cleared it. In the 19th minute, Lancers got a penalty corner, but they failed to capitalise. In the closing stages of the second quarter, Lancers applied huge pressure. They got five penalty corners, but failed to convert any of those.
After the change of ends, Lancers persisted with their attacking intent and got another penalty corner in the first minute of the second half. However, skipper Moritz Fuerste failed to bisect the opposition defence.
It was then left to the tonsured Australian Turner, to finally break Lancers’ goal jinx. It was his stickwork and combination inside the ‘D’ with Malak Singh that saw an opponent defender ‘obstruct’ which resulted in a penalty. Turner himself took the shot and made it 2-0 beating the rival custodian to his right. The goal saw the fans in the stands break out into a huge jig. The game then was 43 minutes old.
In the last quarter Ranchi players tried their best to get the equaliser, but again wasted their fifth penalty corner. Lancers turned out to be more opportunistic team as Turner scored his second goal with an opportunistic strike to take the score to 4-0.
But then Lancers players got a bit complacent and Rays took full advantage as Sarvanjit Singh scored a field goal in the 53rd minute to reduce the margin to 4-2. After the goal, all the Ranchi players virtually laid siege on the Lancers goal, but the hosts defence stood firm.
Rajendra Prasad Mohapatra
