Kalinga stand in Delhi’s way

Dabang Mumbai’s Danish Mujtaba and Florian Fuchs (right) celebrate the team’s 6-3 win over UP Wizards in their HIL-4 match in Mumbai on Tuesday.

Nothing but a win will suffice for Delhi Waveriders when they face the third-placed Kalinga Lancers in a fight for the two remaining semi-finals spots in the final round-robin league match of the Hockey India League-4 here on Wednesday evening.

Ranchi (37 points) and Punjab (29) are through to the semi-finals, while the fate of the rest hang by a thread.

Uttar Pradesh Wizards’ 3-6 loss to Mumbai on the day has made the Delhi vs Kalinga encounter an enticing one. Both teams are in with a chance, with bottom-dwellers Delhi (22 points) needing an outright win to make it to the last four stage.

Kalinga, on the other hand, have 25 points and enjoy a better goal difference and are almost assured of their berth.

Led by the mercurial Moritz Fuerste, Kalinga have been in top form and the hosts will have to be at their best to halt the in-form team.

Delhi will take heart from their recent performance when they downed Ranchi Rays in a dominant 7-4 win in their last home game. Forwards Talwinder Singh and Mandeep Singh were in top form, while the defence too came up with a solid performance.

On Wednesday though, Delhi will have to be agile against the tournament’s current top-scorer Glenn Turner, who has 15 strikes against his name and has proved unstoppable for most teams.

Fuerste along with Aran Zalewski, Dharamvir Singh and S.K. Uthappa constitute Kalinga’s formidable midfield, while Andrew Charter has been impressive under the bars.

On the day, Mumbai scored field goals through Gurjant Singh, Florian Fuchs and Affan Yousuf.

For UP, V.R. Raghunath and Chinglensana Singh were the goal-getters.

Uttar Pradesh are out of the race with 23 points from 10 matches, while Mumbai (25) will advance if Kalinga defeat or draw Delhi on the morrow.