Local favourites Chandigarh Dynamos demolished Chennai Veerans 5-2 in a Premier Hockey League match at Sector 42 Hockey stadium in Chandigarh on Wednesday.
Responding to the crowd, Dynamos played entertaining hockey and attacked right from the word 'go' forcing two penalty-corners in the first three minutes.
Olympian Deepak Thakur hoisted the lead in the fifth minute after being put in possession by Prabjot Singh.
The opportunistic goal set the tone for the match and Dynamos continued to call the shots and were ahead throughout.
Dynamos should have gone ahead 2-0 in the ninth minute, but a Deepak Thakur slap shot from an indirect penalty-corner was disallowed as it failed to hit the boards.
Chennai, too, responded well thereafter, and kept themselves in the match with a brave fight but were done in by two soft goals due to their own lapses in the midfield and defence.
Chandigarh Dynamos increased the lead in the 14th minute through a freak goal. Ravipal went on a solo on the left flank looking for teammates, but with no one in sight, he cut into the circle and ran down the goal line on the left and took a reluctant shot.
However, the ball rose off defender Raghunath's stick and found the net, with stunned Chennai custodian Sreejesh left in a helpless situation.
Chennai pulled one back within six minutes, earning their first short corner in the 20th minute. Somanna injected a fast and accurate ball and Albert Casas set it up perfectly for Raghunath, whose flick went in like a bullet.
But their joy was short-lived as Dynamos struck again, after four minutes, from their fourth penalty-corner. Jugraj Singh's beat the goalkeeper with a powerful drag flick to make it 3-1 in the 24th minute.
Later, Chennai forced two more short corners before half-time, but Jugraj was instrumental in making a superb goal line save off a Raghunath grounder.
But Chennai came back with another goal and kept themselves at a striking distance in the 46th minute from their 5th and last penalty-corner when their Malaysian import Kuhan Shanmuganathan found the target with a low flick.
Later, Chandigarh struck two more goals to take the match away from Chennai.
In the 56th minute, Inderjit Chadha intercepted a long ball from Kuhan Shanmuganathan and put
Rajpal Singh in possession.
Rajpal relayed it into the circle and Ravipal rushed in and undercut the ball from the top of the `D' and it zoomed into the net.
Prabjot Singh rounded off the tally in the 56th minute. Mandeep tapped in a defence-splitting long corner from the right but Chennai goalie Sreejesh saved it at the nick of time. But Muthuselvan's weak clearance went only till Prabjot, who slammed it from the top of the circle.
Dynamos' Ravipal Singh, who scored a brace, was declared 'Lion of the match'.
More from rediff