Mumbai Magicians' hopes of making it to the semi-finals of the Hockey India League were dealt a major blow when the Mumbai franchise lost 0-2 to the Uttar Pradesh Wizards on Saturday at the Dhyan Chand Astroturf Stadium in Lucknow.
Goals from Pardeep Mor and Siddharth Shankar made the difference for the hosts in this bottom of the table clash. Wizards now have 22 points, 8 more than bottom-placed Magicians.
Both the teams began the match on a cautions note, with the play stuck in midfield. Neither of the team was ready to go for an all out attack, and were trying to maintain their shape. It all changed in the ninth minute though, when the hosts took the lead.
Under a little bit of pressure from a Wizards’ player, Glenn Simpson made a poor clearance, which was collected by Pardeep Mor at the top of the Magicians’ circle. Mor took a couple of steps towards the ball, and smashed it in the top right corner, giving Magicians’ goalie Sreejesh absolutely no chance.
This was Mor’s first goal of the tournament.u00a0The hosts delivered the decisive blow to the Magicians in the 58th minute when a poor clearance went to David Alegre. His shot was then well saved by Sreejesh.
However, that was followed by another bad clearance that went straight to Siddharth Shankar, who smashed it low to the left of Sreejesh to put the match beyond the Magicians’ reach.u00a0
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