Mercurial forward Dhanraj Pillay scored the golden goal as Maratha Warriors defeated Chennai Veerans 3-2 in the Premier Hockey League match at Hyderabad on Saturday.
After the teams were locked 2-2 at regulation time, the match was extended to extra-time when Pillay deflected in the free hit from outside by Kashif Jawad for the winner.
The win gave Warriors two points while Chennai earned one point for taking the match into extra time.
Jawad gave Maratha Warriors the lead in the 25th minute while Chennai skipper Ignace Tirkey drew parity in the 32nd minute.
Sandeep Singh's 49th minute strike made the scoreline 2-1 in favour of the Veerans, but Warriors equalised through Pakistan's Ali Raza who converted a penalty corner in the 58th minute.
After a dull start, the second quarter saw Pillay and Jawad packing their experience into their game when a brilliant pass by the former was elegantly put home by the Pakistani forward.
Veerans tried hard for the equaliser and they managed to draw level just before completion of the second quarter. Ignace Tirkey shot hard from a narrow angle in the right flank and the ball caressed the pads of goalkeeper Baljit Singh before entering the cage.
The goal boosted the morale of the Veerans who took the lead when young Sandeep Singh beautifully converted a penalty corner with a powerful drag-flick.
But nine minutes later, Raza Ali too scored from a penalty corner much to the disappointment of Chennai players.
Veerans played with a new strategy and showed a lot of discipline denying Pillay and Jawad to take control of the proceedings.
In the initial stages, it appeared as if both the teams were playing without any purpose and this was evident from the way they performed.
The first quarter provided some very ordinary stuff even though both the sides made a few good moves. But they could not capitalise on them due to lack of finishing touches.
Veerans launched a good attack led by Juan Pablo Escarre and forced a penalty corner but Sandeep Singh's scoop landed on top of the box.
The men from south made some further misses with Adam Sinclair wasting a golden opportunity. Sinclair got a wonderful pass from Escarre inside the circle but failed to beat the goalkeeper.
Maratha skipper Viren Rasaquinha and Sunil Yadav were shown the yellow card for stick check while Nitin Singh and Escarre were temporaily suspended for foul play.
With today's one point, Chennai Veerans moved to three points from six matches while Maratha Warriors were on seven points from six matches as well.
