Men's HIL: Soorma Hockey Club beat Hyderabad Toofans 1-1 (3-1 SO)

Chennai, Jan 9 Soorma Hockey Club registered a thrilling 3-1 shootout victory against Hyderabad Toofans after a 1-1 draw in regulation time in the Men’s Hockey India League (HIL) 2025-26 at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium in Chennai on Friday. Captain Harmanpreet Singh (20') scored the goal for Soorma Hockey Club, and Amandeep Lakra (46') was the goalscorer for Hyderabad Toofans.

The first quarter saw a lot of circle entries and chances, but the defenders on both sides were resilient and stopped all the attacks. JSW Soorma Hockey Club started the game strong and won the first penalty corner in the third minute, but Harmanpreet Singh's attempt was stopped by the first rusher.

Moments later, Soorma made two good attempts on goal as they piled on the pressure on Hyderabad Toofans, but goalkeeper Bikramjit Singh made incredible back-to-back saves to deny them the opening goal. In the eighth minute, Hyderabad Toofans won three penalty corners in a row, but Soorma's backline did well to protect their goal.

The game opened up in the second quarter as captain Harmanpreet Singh (20') converted a penalty corner in the 20th minute for JSW Soorma Hockey Club with a low driven dragflick that found the bottom left corner of the goal to take the lead. Soorma controlled the tempo of the game for the remaining quarter as they headed into the second half with a slim lead in hand.

In the 34th minute, Hyderabad Toofans came extremely close to finding a goal as Amandeep Lakra's powerful flick from a penalty corner went narrowly wide off target. Four minutes later on the other end, JSW Soorma Hockey Club were awarded a penalty corner. Jeremy Hayward took the shot this time for Soorma, but Bikramjit Singh made another brilliant save for Hyderabad Toofans to maintain the deficit.

Toofans were awarded a crucial penalty corner in the initial minutes of the final quarter as Amandeep Lakra (46') rose to the occasion and delivered a powerful dragflick to score the equaliser for Hyderabad Toofans. In the 54th minute, Hyderabad Toofans made another good move as Devindar Walmiki played an incisive pass into the circle from the right flank, but Tim Brand's deflection went inches away from the goal.

Hyderabad Toofans continued to put pressure in the late stages as Arshdeep Singh did well to hold the ball in the circle and unleash a back-handed shot on goal; however, JSW Soorma Hockey Club goalkeeper Vincent Vanasch made a strong save to keep the scores level as the match went into a shootout.

JSW Soorma Hockey Club won the shootout 3-1 as Harmanpreet Singh and Nicolas Keenan scored from their attempts. In the end, Toofans' goalkeeper Bikramjit Singh gave away a penalty stroke due to a stick-check during Nicolas della Torre's attempt as Harmanpreet Singh stepped up and capped off his strong performance by converting the stroke and claiming the bonus point for JSW Soorma Hockey Club.

--IANS

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