A resurgent Bangalore Hi-Fliers rallied to record a 4-2 victory over home favourites Chandigarh Dynamos and stay alive in the best of three-finals of the fourth Premier Hockey League in Chandigarh on Wednesday.
After a lacklustre performance in the first final, Bangalore staged a comeback in the second to drag the contest to the decider to be held on Friday.
Chandigarh took a 2-0 lead through Deepak Thakur (10th) and Rajpal Singh (22nd), but Sandeep Michael (23), You Hyo Sik (32nd, 42nd) and Sunil (61st) frustrated the Dynamos with their strikes.
The match was punctuated by several injuries and strong protests by both the teams against a few umpiring decisions.
The Bangalore team again had a disappointing start as their raids went futile and the penalty corners could not be utilised in the first quarter.
In the meanwhile, Dynamos' captain Rajpal sent a good ball to SS Gill and the latter's apt hit into the circle resulted in the first goal.
After the disappointing show with his drag-flicks, the injury-hit Len Aiyappa could not clear Gill's shot and Deepak Thakur did not have much trouble to put that in.
The buoyed Chandigarh team then initiated several attacks and kept the Bangalore defenders on their toes.
In the second quarter, Pakistani import Ghazanfar Ali provided a nice pass to Inderjit Chaddha and he quickly fed Rajpal, who rushed forward and fired in the second goal for his side.
But the moments of happiness came crashing down for the Dynamos in the next minute. Bangalore got a penalty corner and exhibited commendable team work to reduce the margin.
Aiyappa's drag-flick was stopped by goalkeeper Baljit Singh and Bangalore skipper Tushar Khandekar pounced on the ball from the right to send it to an unmarked Sandeep Michael, who completed the formalities promptly.
Then Bangalore's Korean forward Hyo Sik hogged limelight by showing his presence of mind and helping the side emerge triumphant.
Khandekar's brilliant stickwork beat two Dynamos defenders as he gave a through ball to Hari Prasad on the right. The latter had a double strike at the goal and the second one rebounded to reach Hyo Sik and he tapped it in to level the scores.
Ten minutes later, Hyo Sik again gave the finishing touch to a complex move to tilt the match in favour of the Bangalore team.
A pumped up Khandekar once again called the shots as he provided a exquisite pass to Sunil who guided the ball in to seal the fate of the Dynamos.
With time running away fast, Rajpal led his boys in a few attacks but their effort did not yield any fruit much to the disappointment of the home fans.
Korean striker Hyo Sik was declared the man-of-the-match.
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