Bangalore Lions tame Jallandhar Shers

Chandigarh:

Bangalore Lions registered their first win in the Premier Hockey League this season when they outplayed Sher-e-Jallandhar 2-0 in a floodlit encounter at the Sector 42 stadium on Saturday night. Both the goals came in the second quarter. In the 12th minute of the period, the Lions' Pakistani import Rehan Butt gave his team the lead when he diverted a pass with a soft flick into the post. Three minutes later, Tushar Khandekar managed to dodge three players and passed the ball to Sandeep Michael who made no mistake to seal the result. The Shers now have just three points from four matches as against the four points earned by the Lions from their two encounters. The Jallandhar team, which looked erratic and failed to trap the ball on several occasions, made a mess of the few chances they got. They got as many as three penalty corners in succession in the third quarter and one of them had to be referred to the third umpire, but nothing came off them. Pakistani umpire Haidar Rasool consulted the third umpire when a direct hit from Sher's Kanwalpreet Singh hit the goal post above the permissible height of 18 inches. As a result, the TV umpire disallowed the goal. The Shers also failed to capitalise on the fourth penalty corner which came their way in the final quarter. On the other hand, the Lions got just one penalty corner from which they could not score. (PTI)