New Delhi: Delhi Wizards suffered their fourth loss of the World Series Hockey (WSH) as Gurjinder Singh's penalty-corner strike earned Chandigarh Comets a narrow 0-1 win here at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium on Wednesday.
The result affected the Wizards badly as a win would have taken them past the Comets in points tally. But as against 12 points of Chandigarh after this win, Delhi remain at just 7 and with a monumental task to climb back to the top half of the leaderboard in the latter part of the tournament.
The match was more about the missed opportunities as both the teams had ample chances to score but the final touch either eluded or let them down. However, on their third penalty corner in the 63rd minute, the Comets found the net through their penalty-corner specialist Gurjinder.
Brisk pace was the highlight of the match, which otherwise witnessed some shoddy finishing. The visitors enjoyed their best period of the match during the five minutes before the half-time hooter. The forwards created as many as three chances in that bracket but couldn't convert either of those.
Delhi's best chance of the match arrived in the 37th minute but Victo Singh's shot was deflected wide by a defender's stick. Delhi suffered mainly due to their off-colour stalwarts Shakeel Abbasi and Rajpal Singh who couldn't combine often for any meaningful moves. But in a shocking decision after the match, Delhi skipper Abbasi was named 'Man of the Match'.
Rajpal came close to equalising in the 65th minute but his shot was padded away by Chandigarh goalkeeper Harjot Singh.
Leading up to this loss, the Wizards had gone down to Bhopal Badshahs, Chennai Cheetahs and Pune Strykers; drawn with Mumbai Marines; and beaten Karnataka Lions and Sher-e-Punjab. Meanwhile, the Comets had lost to Bhopal, Chennai and Karnataka and beaten Mumbai, Pune and Punjab in their previous six encounters.
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