Powered by ace drag flicker Sohail Abbas's hat-trick, Hyderabad Sultans beat Bangalore Hi-Fiers 5-2 and avenged their last week's defeat in the Tier-I Premier Hockey League match at the Gachibowli hockey complex in Hyderabad on Wednesday.
Sohail put Hyderabad in the lead by scoring via three penalty corners in a row in the first seven minutes (2nd, 5th, 7th minute) of the play before Avtar Singh (22nd) and Sameer Dad (24th) swelled the lead to 5-0 at half time.
Kuhan Shanmuganathan (45th) and skipper Len Aiyappa (53rd) reduced the margin.
Jolted by Sohail's hat-trick, Bangalore lost the rhythm and had a tough time defending a wave of raid by rivals. The visitors made a late challenge but could not catch up the with the hosts.
Hyderabad are leading the Tier-I points table with nine points from four matches, of which they have won three and lost one -- to Bangalore Hi-Fliers.
Sohail's drag flick zoomed past Bharat Chetri's left corner in the second minute as Hyderabad took the lead and the Pakistani struck in the fifth minute again to increase the lead to 2-0.
Drawing the Bangalore custodian Chetri to the wrong side, Sohail doubled the lead amidst cheers from the holiday crowd.
Sohail did not miss the mark for his third goal and completed the hat-trick, which was second in the tournament.
Bangalore Hi-Fliers' Len Aiyappa had scored the first hat-trick in the previous encounter between these two teams.
Arjun Halappa was shown the green card in the first quarter, which ended with a 3-0 lead in the favour of the hosts.
Bangalore team stepped up the attack in the second quarter but could not yield much result. While for Sultans Avtar Singh scored from a long shot by Pakistani Wasim Ahmed after it was deflected by Susan Topno and then directed by Inderjeet to take a 4-0 lead. Sameer Dad scored the fifth goal for the winners.
Third quarter proved to be eventful for Bangalore team with the Malaysian star K Shanmuganathan beating the Hyderabad custodian Ahmed Alam to sound the board and open their account to make it 5-1.
Eight minutes later Len Aiyappa converted another penalty corner for the Bangalore team to reduce the margin to 2-5.
Halappa could not score from a penalty score which was saved by the Hyderabad custodian Alam in the last quarter.
Sameer was shown a yellow card for obstructing V S Vinay resulting in an injury to the latter in the fourth quarter.
It turned out to be a bad day for Bangalore players as Vinay missed many chances and the midfield led by Len Aiyappa could not help their side while the forwards committed many errors.
