Spanish import Santi Frexia helped Sher-e-Jalandhar beat Maratha Warriors 3-2 in a nail-biting match of the Premier Hockey League in Chandigarh on Thursday night.
The keenly-fought encounter went into extra-time, after both teams were locked at 2-2 in regulation time. Frexia made no mistake, firing his drag-flick past goalkeeper Adrian D'Souza for the match-winner.
It was his second goal of the match from the team's fifth penalty-corner.
The silver goal, which gave the Shers two points from the match and put them behind Orissa Steelers, was the second penalty-corner that they got back-to-back in extra-time.
Frexia had earlier given his team a 2-0 lead at half-time when he scored his first goal of the tournament from a penalty-corner.
The other scorer for Shers was Gagan Ajit Singh, who opened the scoring in the 16th minute of the game, finishing off a good pass from Tejbir with his reverse flick.
But the Warriors turned tables on Shers in the fourth and last quarter of the match when their Pakistani import Imran Warsi pulled a goal back off a penalty-corner.
Then Australian striker Jamie Dwyer, who had been heavily marked, took the Shers by surprise and finished off a well-executed attack.
Handicapped due to the absence of Ajmer Singh, facing a suspension for this match on account of being shown two yellow cards earlier, Warriors' Gaurav, who came in as make-shift left-half, in his place looked tentative and his weakness was thoroughly exploited by the Shers, who did not allow Dwyer any opportunity to build up any attacks.
