Hyderabad Sultans win PHL

Inderjeet Singh Chadda netted a brilliant winner in the fourth quarter as hosts Hyderabad Sultans defeated Sher-e-Jalandhar 2-1 in their final league match to win the inaugural Premier Hockey League in Hyderabad on Sunday.

For Sultans, Sameer Dad (20th minute) and Chadda (65th) found the mark, while Deepak Thakur (49th) scored for Sher-e-Jalandhar.

The winners, who finished with 19 points to emerge champions, took home a prize money of Rs 30 lakh and the runners up Rs 10 lakh as the inaugural edition of the event concluded today.

Sultans were followed in the points table by Sher-e-Jalandhar (14), Maratha Warriors (13), Bangalore Hi-Fliers (9) and Chennai Veerans (5).

In today's match, Sultans surged ahead into the lead after a barren first quarter when a move from the right was taken by Wasim Ahmed who put the ball in Sameer Dad's possession.

Dad dodged past two players including Baljit Singh Dhillon before driving home to draw the first blood.

Jalandhar tried hard for the equaliser, which came when Deepak Thakur, after getting a cross from Didar Singh, tapped the ball in.

With the score level at 1-1 and the match entering into the last quarter, it appeared as if the fate could be decided in extra-time. But Chaddha had other plans as with just five minutes to go he slammed one past the Jalandhar goalkeeper  to seal the issue in favour of his side.

Hyderabad skipper Dilip Tirkey was injured in the first quarter and was out of rest of the match. But his absence did not hurt the hosts much since former Pakistan captain Wasim Ahmed displayed good stick work and was brilliant in the first half of the match.

The hosts built up some very good moves in the initial stage of the match and they attacked in waves with Chaddha and Dad leading from the front and Ajitesh Rai providing adequate support from the mid-field.

But all the raids could yield nothing positive in the face of some very good work by the Jalandhar deep defenders.

After the Sultans took the lead, Jalandhar stepped up their attack and pace and the hosts survived a scare when Prabhjot Singh tried his reverse hit but Vikram Pillay dived brilliantly to intercept the ball before custodian Ahmed Alam averted any further damage.

Jalandhar missed out on a good chance when Prabhjot Singh took a through ball into the circle but Thakur failed to connect it.

In the third quarter, short corner specialist Sohail Abbas failed to convert a penalty corner, much to the disappointment of the home crowd that cheered for Hyderabad throughout the match.

Sohail, however, ended as the second highest goal scorer of the competition with seven goals, one less than Len Aiyappa of Bangalore Hi-Fliers.