CHL Night 8: Titans Can Seal Second Place, Champions and Bulls Fight for the Last Semi-Final Spot
This is how a league stage should end. Two games, four teams, and every result changes the semi-final picture.
Mainpat Titans against Sanskardhani Strikers opens the night at 5:00pm PKT in Raipur, and the Titans know exactly what a win does for them. They’re on 8 points from four games, two wins and two draws, behind only the Nyayadhani Knights on 11. A win takes them to 11 and second place, and nobody below them can catch them. A draw takes them to 9, which still leaves the door open. A defeat, and things get messy in a hurry.
The Titans have earned their position the hard way. They drew 3-3 with the Bulls, beat the Royals 5-2, beat the Champions 3-1 in the game that ended the Champions’ unbeaten start, and then drew 1-1 with the Knights on Wednesday night, Mohit Nayak equalising late after Ketan had put the Knights ahead with his sixth goal of the tournament. They’re unbeaten, they’re hard to break down, and Sandeep’s penalty-corner brace against the Champions showed they have goals in them when it matters.
The Strikers, though, are not coming to make up the numbers. They’re on 4 points, and a win keeps their own semi-final hopes alive for fourth place. They’ve been in every game they’ve played: a 5-5 draw with the Bulls in which Jaskaran Singh scored all five Bulls goals, a 6-4 defeat to the Champions in which Yuvraj Walmiki’s hat-trick did the damage, a 4-2 win over the Royals for their first victory, and a defeat to the Knights. They can score. The question is whether they can stop the Titans scoring more.
Then, at 7:00pm PKT, Chakradhar Champions against Bailadila Bulls, and this one is even more direct. The Champions are on 7 points. Win, and they go to 10, which would take them past the Titans if the Titans lose the first game, and would at least lock up a semi-final place. The Bulls are on 5 points after Wednesday’s rain-hit 1-0 win over the Royals, their first win of the tournament, Rahul Yadav scoring the only goal. Win here, and the Bulls go to 8, level with the Titans, and goal difference comes into it. Lose, and they’re done.
The Champions will be hurting from that 3-1 defeat to the Titans on Monday, when Sandeep scored twice from penalty corners and the Titans marked SV Sunil out of the game, surrounding him with four defenders every time he got near the circle. Sunil is the kind of player who answers a night like that. The Bulls, meanwhile, arrive with something they didn’t have all tournament until Wednesday: a win, and the belief that comes with it. They also arrive knowing the conditions in Raipur have been brutal, with Cyclone Arnab delaying Wednesday’s game by almost an hour and turning the circle into a paddling pool. If the rain comes back, this becomes a scrap. The Champions won’t want a scrap. The Bulls might love one.
Rajdhani Royals are already done, five defeats from five, and the Knights are already through as league winners in waiting. Friday is a rest day, the semi-finals are on Saturday 31 October, and the final is on 1 November, Chhattisgarh State Foundation Day. Thursday night decides who joins the Knights in the last four. Four teams, two games, one night. That’s the whole season in three hours.
Related links:
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