Powered by Sohail Abbas' hat-trick, Hyderabad Sultans defeated Maratha Warriors 4-2 to post their second straight win and leap to the top of the Premier Hockey League standings with 15 points in Hyderabad on Sunday.
The genius from Pakistan sounded the board in the 17th, 34th and 40th minute and Indrajeet Singh scored the fourth goal in the 56th minute as Warriors surrendered scoring only two goals through Kashif Jawad (7th) and Shivendra Singh (46th).
It was Marathas who took the lead though Jawad but Abbas restored parity within ten minutes before the end of the first quarter. He struck again just before the close of second quarter to give the hosts in 2-1 lead. Abbas then completed his hat-trick in the third quarter to put Sultans on top at 3-1.
A penalty corner conversion by Shivendra Singh infused tempo into the game as the Warriors narrowed the gap to 2-3 but then a brilliant reverse hit by Indrajeet Singh sealed the fate of Warriors in the final quarter.
The opening goal of the match saw mercurial Dhanraj Pillay doing the spadework, which was neatly finished by Jawad collecting a brilliant pass from Sunil Yadav.
Sohail then came up with in inimitable drag flick past the Maratha custodian Baljeet Singh towards the close of the first quarter as the two teams went level 1-1 at the break.
He again struck at the end of the second quarter through another conversion and this time his powerful flick tore open the nets and scooted out as the home crowd erupted in joy.
The crowd puller, with his wife among the spectators, was in full flow much to the delight of the spectators and completed his hat-trick in the 40th minute.
A foul at the danger zone earned a penalty corner, which was neatly driven home by Shivender Singh through a crowded goalmouth raising the hopes of Maratha Warriors to make the score read 2-3.
Then came the stunning goal from Sultans. In a power packed raid into the striking zone, Indrajeet Singh took the cross from Waseem and hit it in a diagonal reverse to take the
home team to 4-2.
Earlier, Warriors began on a confident note and raided the rival citadel with the midfield and forwards working in tandem. Dhanraj was at his best and he came up with precision passes, which troubled the best of the Sultan players.
Early action at the other end saw, Maratha custodian stop two of the four drag flicks by Sohail Abbas even as Inderjeet was shown yellow card twice for obstruction.
Hyderabad Sultans have won five of their six matches to top the charts with 15 points.
Earlier, Chandigarh Dynamos lifted the Tier II title defeating Delhi Dazzlers 4-3 in sudden death in their last league match.
Chandigarh won all their eight matches to finish with 23 points and annex the trophy. The title win earned them a prize money of Rs four lakh. Delhi finished at the second spot with 19 points.
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