HIL 2016: Sardar Singh marshals Punjab Warriors to winning start against Ranchi Rays

Despite the win, it was not a smooth ride for the Punjab side which was playing at the newly laid astro turf at Sector 42 Hockey Stadium.

Sardar Singh assisted Jake Whetton’s second minute goal. (Express Photo by: Jasbir Malhi)

The Punjab Warriors franchise have the advantage of featuring two international captains in India’s Sardar Singh and Australian Mark Knowles for the fourth season of the Hockey India League.

On Tuesday, before the match against defending champions Ranchi Rays, Sardar spent some time with his defenders. Knowles meanwhile spoke to goalie Tristian Clemons. Whatever they spoke seemed to have helped as Punjab Warriors’ began their campaign with a 2-0 win over Rays. Sardar also contributed from the field with by assisting Jake Whetton to score the game’s solitary goal which counts as two under the newly introduced scoring system. The experienced skipper then maneuvering the defense line well to thwart Ranchi’s challenge.

Whetton’s second minute goal came off a counter-attack. Sardar first collected the ball quickly outside the Warriors’ D and made a quick run towards the Ranchi half before giving the pass to Whetton who dodged goalie Lovell Tyler to score.

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Despite the win, it was not a smooth ride for the Punjab side which was playing at the newly laid astro turf at Sector 42 Hockey Stadium. The Ranchi team had close to 60 percent ball possession in all the quarters and the fact that Warriors also missed all their penalty corners would also be a cause for concern with Whetton, Chrishtopher Cirello and Gagandeep Rehal missing a chance each.

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Some fine sallies in the final quarter by Ranchi Rays forwards Jackson and Trent Mitton meant that the visitors ran close with five shots at goal as compared to seven shots by Warriors in the match but Rays despite 12 circle penetrations could not convert into any goal. “We wanted to score first and we succeeded in doing that. “Yes, we had less of ball possession but our defenders managed to do well against the likes of Ashley Jackson and Manpreet Singh. Ranchi too boosts of a good defense line-up and we knew that from the beginning that it will not be easy to make inroads. After half-time our game plan was to attack more and that also put some pressure on them,” added Sardar.

Nitin Sharma

Nitin Sharma is an Assistant Editor with the sports team of The Indian Express. Based out of Chandigarh, Nitin works with the print sports desk while also breaking news stories for the online sports team. A Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award recipient for the year 2017 for his story ‘Harmans of Moga’, Nitin has also been a two-time recipient of the UNFPA-supported Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity for the years 2022 and 2023 respectively. Nitin mainly covers Olympics sports disciplines with his main interests in shooting, boxing, wrestling, athletics and much more. The last 17 years with The Indian Express has seen him unearthing stories across India from as far as Andaman and Nicobar to the North East. Nitin also covers cricket apart from women’s cricket with a keen interest. Nitin has covered events like the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the 2011 ODI World Cup, 2016 T20 World Cup and the 2017 AIBA World Youth Boxing Championships. An alumnus of School of Communication Studies, Panjab University, from where he completed his Masters in Mass Communications degree, Nitin has been an avid quizzer too. A Guru Nanak Dev University Colour holder, Nitin’s interest in quizzing began in the town of Talwara Township, a small town near the Punjab-Himachal Pradesh border. When not reporting, Nitin's interests lie in discovering new treks in the mountains or spending time near the river Beas at his hometown. ... Read More