Sandeep Antil slotted in a sudden-death goal to help Maratha Warriors edge past Chandigarh Dynamos 5-4 in a Premier Hockey League match in Chennai on Monday.
In a long-drawn tie, the teams were on level terms during regulation time and 15 minutes of extra-time. Even the tie-breaker failed to resolve the issue, forcing the match to be decided in sudden death.
Antil succeeded in beating rival 'keeper Baljit Singh when the new 'shoot out' rule was used to resolve the tie.
In regulation time, Maratha Warriors went into the lead in the 23rd minute through a Bharath Kumar goal.
Chandigarah Dynamos found the equaliser in the 55th minute when Ravipal took advantage of a defensive lapse and drove home powerfully.
In the tie-breaker, Shivendra Singh, Sandeep Antil and Dhanjay Mahadik were successful for Maratha Warriors while Rajpal Singh, Navdeep Singh and Sher Singh were on target for the Dynamos.
Then, Navdeep and Jugraj Singh muffed their 'attempts' just like their opposing players, Shivendra Singh and Mahadik.
With the teams still level 4-4, Antil dodged Baljit Singh and hit a powerful shot that deflected off the chest of Baljit, hit the cross piece and entered the cage.
The Chandigarh Dynamos forwards missed the services of Olympian Deepak Thakur, who suffered a finger fracture on his left hand in the inaugural match.
Early in the match, Dynamos got a good chance to score when they got a penalty-corner in the fifth minute, but could not execute the hit properly because of captain Rajpal's failure to accept the push properly.
Two minutes later, the Chandigarh outfit looked to be going into the lead but the Netherlands' Cesco Vander Vliet made a goal line save for the Warriors.
On another occasion, Rajpal's swift cross from inside the circle went to Prabhjot Singh, who was trifle late in relaying a shot.
By then, defender Ajmer Singh came to check Prabhjot but the latter took a shot and the ball started rolling towards the goal after rebounding off the body of stretched Maratha goalkeeper Adrian D'Souza.
At this point, Vliet ran like a panther to prevent the ball from crossing the goal line.
Maratha Warriors found success from the lone opportunity that came their way in the 23rd minute. Shivendra Singh accepted a pass from the right from Bowmans Blader and had no room to take a shot with two defenders closing in on him. But he turned and reverse-flicked only to see Baljit put his left glove to the ball. However, Bharath Kumar showed good opportunism in sounding the board on the rebound.
Chandigarh Dynamos found parity when Sher Singh's shot was saved by Adrian, but Ravipal Singh unleashed a powerful shot from about 15 feet to find the target.
