Ranchi Rhinos' comeback thwarts Mumbai Magicians

This must be Ric Charlesworth’s worst ever phase as a coach. Seven defeats from seven matches on the trot, and still counting as his wards, Mumbai Magicians, went down by the odd goal in three in a seventh round match of the Hockey India League at the Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium tonight.

It was the fifth win for the Gregg Clark coached team who zoomed up to 27 points, the same as table toppers Delhi Waveriders, while the visitors remain stuck in the bottom with 7 points and look in real danger of missing the cut for the last four.

Mumbai took the lead, yet again, in the 2nd minute when Sandeep Singh bulged the net with a hard flick to the right corner for this 10th goal of the tournament. But Ashley Jackson retaliated from Ranchi’s fifth penalty corner award and Manpreet Singh scored a super field goal in the 49th minute, his first of the tournament, dribbling his way into the circle and finding the target with a rasping shot which proved to be the match-winner. The Rhinos had won the earlier encounter at the same venue by a 3-1 margin.

Ranchi went into the game with an attacking 2-4-4- formation while Mumbai opted for the more defensive 4-3-3 with the intention of hitting back on the counter-attack. It was a scrappy encounter for the most part and though Ranchi enjoyed the greater share of the exchanges, the match did not rise to the commanding heights as quality hockey and consistency from both sides were at a premium.

Moritz Fuertse’s absence in the line-up due to illness took the sting out of the home attack, though they flourished in bits and pieces with 17-year-old Mandeep Singh again catching the eye with his darting runs and tricky dribbles and Manpreet and the livewire Birendra Lakra once again making themselves extremely useful. Francisco Cortes also had a hand in the Ranchi victory as he neutralized the Mumbai threat from penalty corners, good rushing and positioning by the other defenders also playing their part.

There was some improvement from the Mumbai side and Glenn Turner strove hard in the second half to try and redeem the match but overall it was not good enough and their forwards once again failed to get onto the score-sheet. Mumbai were also lucky not to lose by a larger margin as Jackson struck the post at the end of the first session off a penalty corner and veteran Floris Evers, who has just retired from international hockey, made a great run along the baseline on the left late in the second session but his feeble push beat both goalkeeper P R Sreejesh and the far post by a whisker.