Women’s HIL: Tigers get past Pipers in another shootout

It has been really difficult to separate SG Pipers and Shrachi Bengal Tigers in the ongoing season of the Women’s Hockey India League. It was evident in their previous encounter on New Year’s Day. And there was a rerun of the same on Tuesday as the game trickled down to a dramatic shootout once again after a goalless hour of play at the Marang Gomke Jaipal Singh Stadium here.

However, Tigers have had the last roar on each of these occasions, finishing on the right end of Thursday’s 3(4)-3(3) and the latest 0(7)-0(6) scorelines. The crowd, left craving for more after the regulation time, was treated to a dramatic shootout that saw a combined 20 penalty shots being taken. While Purnima Yadav and Noor de Baat found the net twice, it was Sukhveer Kaur’s final attempt that sealed the deal.

Earlier, Tigers had the opportunity to break the deadlock in the opening quarter itself through two penalty corners, but they went off the rails.

It was adventurous of Pipers to start with the maximum possible nine Indians, Kaitlin Nobbs and Teresa Viana being the only foreign players in their XI. Nobbs, in fact, was made to play out of her natural position at centre-back to intercept Lalremisiami’s blistering runs.

A scorching backhander from Emma Findlay on the left posed the first real threat 20 minutes into the game. But Solanki Bansari was up to the task. The Indian goalkeeper was tested again with Victoria Manuele threading a cheeky back-pass to Vandana Katariya, who swung just wide.

Pipers displayed a tad more initiative in the final two quarters, with seven of their 10 circle entries coming inside the said period. But the goals continued to elude both parties.

The result: Shrachi Bengal Tigers 0 drew with SG Pipers 0; Tigers won 7-6 via shootout.