In probably the most eventful match of hockey I hv ever seen The Bangalore Lions (for the record my team :) ) became the second ever PHL champs.

Playing away from home for the fourth night in a row the Lions beat the Chandighar Dynamos 2-1 in match which saw 3 goals in the last half and 2 in the last quarter. Hari Prasad the double goal scorer for the Lions was the “Lion of the day”.

I caught this match from the middle of the 3rd quarter when the Lions lead 1-0 having scored a few mins ago at the start of the quarter. Replays showed the Lions converting their only penalty corner of the match… Hari pulling off a reverse flick that beat the goal keeper after a failed strike by his team mate Len Aiyappa.

The fourth quarter started all the drama. Firstly a stone was thrown at a player (I think Rehan Butt of the Lions) by the defiant Chandighar crowd. The match had marked the highest attendence to a hockey match in a long time (I mean there was no place to sit and there were people everywhere… think Eden Gardens kindof crowd for a Indo Pak cricket match). The crowd seemed to cool down after the Dynamos coach walked up and requested them to be sporting.

Later into the quarter the Lions almost walked out of the match coz of a caret(ball hitting the foot) given against them in the D… That penalty corner was not converted by the dynamos, a beautiful piece of work by the Lions keeper Rao. He had denied them 5 penalty corner goals with absolutely beautiful goal keeping.

Then a few mins later a forced caret in the Lions D caused the Penalty corner allowing the Dynamos to equalize. The next few mins saw some of the best attacking play by the Dynamos and some classic defending by the Lions. The scores were level and it was 4 mins to the hooter when the unthinkable happened… Rehen Butt the Lions striker was given a yellow card for dissent. The striker had got the ball flawlessly into the Dynamos’ D and almost scored when a caret was given against him. Replays showed the ball never touched his foot and that it had touched a defenders foot instead(it was not even close… I was like WTF). Rehen lost his cool after argueing with the referee he walked up to the Lions team seats and threw his stick at the wall, the refree seeing this pulled out the card reducing the Lions to 10 men.

Lions were playing the match without their captian Arjun Halappa who was injured. Now with 10 men and hardly any strikers it seemed like they were doomed… Just then Hari pulled out this amazing sprint towards the goal. He attacked from the right and had probably a 10-5 Deg angle to strike and strike he did, then… Justice, Sweet Justice as the ball hit the back of the goal. If Hari’s screams and jubiliation were anything the scilence of the Chandighar crowd spoke volumes.

2 mins later the Hooter sounded making the Lions the 2006 PHL Champs… Great work guys keep it up, You throughly deserve the championship. The winners pocketed a cool 30 Lakhs and the runners up 10 L.

I saw a few matches this season but will not miss a single one in 2007, when the Lions defend their championship :).