Cheetahs keep their hopes alive with 6-4 win over Wizards

Chennai: Hosts Chennai Cheetahs made an incredible comeback in the final quarter as they beat Delhi Wizards 6-4 to keep their hopes of making it to the semi-finals alive.

Cheetahs now have 19 points from 13 matches and are on fourth spot. It was a fantastic game where Cheetahs trailing 1-3 came back to equalise and then pump in three more. Wizards` Vikramjeet Singh did his reputation no harm as he struck thrice with identical drag-flick conversions. The first goal came in the 11th minute of the first quarter only to be equalised by Cheetahs within three minutes. It was case of defensive lapse on part of Wizards defenders as Veeraswamy Raja got enough space and time to execute a powerful angular shot that beat the opposition goalie. However the in the 10th minute of the second quarter (27th of the match), Vikramjeet was brilliant once again as he scored his 10th goal in the tournament. In the 33rd minute, Cheetahs nearly equalised when it looked that Gaurav Tokhi of the home team had guided a powerful hit into the Wizards goal but a referral showed that it had only touched India discard Rajpal Singh`s stick. Vikramjeet made it 11 strikes in the tourney when he converted another in the 37th minute and also completed his hat-trick in the process. However former Pakistan international Syed Imran Warsi --- who is currently the highest scorer in the tournament then converted a couple of short corners to level the proceedings. The third quarter ended at 3-3 with Warsi leading the tournament scorer chart with 18 goals. However in the final quarter, it was Cheetahs all over as they scored two field goals from the melee. First it was India discard Adam Sinclair who tapped home from close range in the 63rd minute to make it 4-3 and a minute later, veteran Vikram Pillay made it 5-3. Sinclair scored one of the best goals of the tournament in the 66th minute when he latched onto a loose ball and sprinted down the middle and dribbled past goalie Kamaldeep to slot home making it 6-3. Vikramjeet scored his fourth of the match converting a short corner again to make it 4-6. PTI