Didar Singh's golden goal enabled Hyderabad Sultans beat title contenders Sher-E-Jalandhar 1-0 in the Premier Hockey League in Chennai on Thursday night.
Neither team made use of their chances in 70 minutes of regulation time and the first extra-time 'silver goal' duration of seven-and-half minutes ended goalless.
With the match meandering to the 'golden goal' second extra-time, Didar showed great opportunism to sound the boards.
Forward Sardar Singh took the corner push and the shot was stopped by half back Nitin Kumar. Didar's low flick went into the netting, much to the jubilation of Sultans' supporters.
During the two halves of regulation time, Sher-e-Jalandhar muffed four goal-scoring chances Parminder Singh, Tejbir Singh and Don Prins (two) being the offenders.
Pakistan's Tariq Aziz missed a sitter for the Sultans.
Sultans' wasted five penalty-corners and Sher-E-Jalandhar two.
With two phases of matches already over, the last set of matches in the first leg in Chennai will commence on January 31 and end on February 4 before the teams assemble for the second leg in Chandigarh between February 11 and March 5.
