HIL 2024-25: Rarh Bengal Tigers pips Tamil Nadu Dragons to set title-decider against Hyderabad Toofans

In a nerve-wracking penalty shoot-out, Rarh Bengal Tigers was 0.2 seconds from missing out on the Hockey India League (HIL) final when Florent van Aubel’s reverse flick in the sudden death, barely beat the buzzer.

Then, goalkeeper Tim Cross thwarted Uttam Singh while Abhishek made no mistake with his penalty to take his team through with a 6-5 shoot-out victory over Tamil Nadu Dragons in the first semifinal here at the Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium on Friday.

Earlier, in a stop-start game filled with multiple video referrals, the Tigers dug deep and clawed back twice to force a 2-2 draw in regulation time, despite struggling in its strongest suit – failing to convert from eight penalty corners.

From a lightning counter-attack, Abhishek brilliantly set up Pardeep Singh Sandhu to score into an empty net and equalise, right at the end of the first half to cancel out Nathan Ephraums’ opener.

The Dragons needed less than two minutes from the restart to go ahead once again through Selvam Karthi and had the initiative with the Tigers being a man down for 10 minutes. But Colin Batch’s men fell back to close down the space, while the Dragons looked out of ideas to make the most of the man advantage.

In the fourth quarter, the Tigers made it pay when it pulled level again courtesy of Sam Lane, who flicked it past David Harte to take his side into the shoot-out.

The Tigers will take on Hyderabad Toofans in the title-decider after it thrashed Soorma Hockey Club 3-1 in the second semifinal.

Misfiring Harmanpreet and Co. bow out

There were no heroics from skipper Harmanpreet Singh and goalkeeper Vincent Vanasch to bail out Soorma as the Toofans held their shape well and picked the opponent apart with its incisiveness and speed.

After a sedate start, the Toofans took the lead through Amandeep Lakra, who angled a bullet drag-flick into the middle of the right corner to put the Toofans 1-0 up.

Soorma looked uninspiring in attack and from short corners, squandering 14 attempts against Toofans’ resolute penalty corner defence before Jeremy Hayward found the mark right at the death.

In the second half, Harmanpreet Singh’s long ball was cut out before the Toofans blitzed through the middle, ending with Jacob Anderson, sliding the ball home to double the lead. For the third, Nilakanta Sharma sounded the boards from another counter after Arthur de Sloover pierced a long ball along the turf from his own circle.