Bengal Tigers crush Delhi SG Pipers; go top of HIL

Jugraj Singh scored a brace as Shachi Rarh Bengal Tigers outclassed Delhi SG Pipers 4-1 to jump to the top spot in the Hockey India League in Rourkela on Saturday.

Delhi suffered their first outright defeat in the HIL after they had earlier won one game in the penalty shootout and lost the second.

Jugraj (17th minute and 38th) converted two penalty corners while Sukhjeet Singh (1st) and Abhishek (47th) struck from field play for Bengal Tigers for their third straight win in the competition.

Gareth Furlong scored the only goal for Delhi from a penalty corner in the 53rd minute.

Sukhjeet put Bengal Tigers ahead inside the first 30 seconds to push Delhi on the backfoot. Having gained the upper hand, Bengal Tigers remained dominant

to not allow Delhi any scope of a comeback in the first quarter.

Even though Delhi SG Pipers had more circle penetrations, they failed to get a shot on target.

Two minutes into the second quarter, Jugraj doubled Bengal's lead with a powerful dragflick from a penalty corner.

Delhi too had their chances when in the 22nd minute Bengal goalkeeper Jamie Carr made four saves on the trot to keep his side's lead intact.

In the 27th minute, Tomas Domene came close to scoring for Delhi but his deflection from a narrow angle went just outside the goalpost as Bengal went into the break leading 2-0.

Jugraj scored his second goal of the day eight minutes after the change of ends, once again converting a penalty corner to the right of Delhi goalkeeper Pawan.

Two minutes into the final quarter, an unmarked Abhishek scored an easy tap-in goal to make the scoreline 4-0 in Bengal Tigers favour.

Trailing by four goals, Delhi finally pulled one back in the final seven minutes through Furlong's penalty corner conversion.