Dabur Mumbai Magicians to face off against Uttar Pradesh Wizards at Lucknow

Lucknow, 17 February 2014: After a convincing win against Kalinga Lancers yesterday at their home ground, Dabur Mumbai Magicians are all set to take on the UP Wizards in their last match of the second edition of Hero Hockey India League. Wanting to keep the momentum running, Dabur Mumbai Magicians will be eyeing to bag their second consecutive win and finish at the 5th position in the league. On the other hand, the Uttar Pradesh Wizards will be playing to retain their 3rd position in the pool table before entering the semifinals.

Uttar Pradesh Wizards lost their 9th match against Jaypee Punjab Warriors and were held back from securing the 2nd position as semi-finalists. The Wizards will not only be looking at securing the position that they are in presently, they will even be looking at going to the next level with confidence and zeal of taking on the opponents.

On the other hand, a motivated Dabur Mumbai Magicians’ squad with the likes of Glenn Turner, Mark Gleghorne, Ravipal Singh and Sarvanjit Singh looks in no mood to settle at the bottom of the points table and will play to snatch away the points from the Uttar Pradesh Wizards. But the mighty Wizards, with the likes of V.R Raghunath, Nikkin Thimmaiah, S.K Uthappa and Teun De Nooijer, who have been responsible for gliding the team into securing a berth in the semi-finals, will not make it easy for the Magicians. The Uttar Pradesh Wizards will be looking to overcome their last defeat and strengthen their position in the league.

Speaking on tomorrow’s match Captain Glenn Turner, Dabur Mumbai Magicians said, “We all believed in the team and it is a good feeling after winning yesterday’s match against Kalinga Lancers and certainly gives a boost to the team’s morale. It was a little disappointing performance in the league but if we end on a high, it will certainly help the performance of the team get better next year.”

Speaking on team and expectations Head Coach of Dabur Mumbai Magicians M. K. Kaushik said, “The idea was always to win every match that we play. We have a good squad but a lot of injuries to the players starting from the very first match held us back. The team has worked as one unit in the entire tournament showing good defence skills. For tomorrow’s match, the team has to recover and adapt according to the weather and the ground conditions.”

Speaking before their match against Dabur Mumbai Magicians, V. R. Raghunath, Captain Uttar Pradesh Wizards said, “It’s our last league match. We need to make sure that we don’t make the mistakes that we made in our last game. After this match, it would be a knock-out stage. We need to play with a positive mind and move to semi-final with a positive attitude.”

Speaking on tomorrow’s match, Head Coach Reolant Oltmans, Uttar Pradesh Wizards said, “It will be a good game for the home crowd. The most important thing is after this match, we would be playing the semi-final. We need to prepare ourselves for the semi-final and play a good game tomorrow.”