After making a brilliant start in the championship, drubbing Orissa Steelers 2-0, Dynamos lost out the early momentum as they lost to Bangalore Hi-fliers in a thrilling encounter in the round-robin format, after leading 2-0 in the match. The match was one of the few matches in this edition of the Premier Hockey League which saw a display of individual skills along with some close moments. And the Hi-fliers’ coach Ashish Balal sounded of repeating that kind of performance in the best-of-three finals. Addressing a press conference on Monday, Balal said the competition level will only rise in the league with both the teams expected to put up their best performance. “So far the level of the competition that we have seen has not been one of the best. There have been very few close matches and plenty of matches have gone into penalty shootout. With most of the players attending camps and preparing for the Olympic qualifiers, the League is yet to see a tough battle,” said Balal, and after an afterthought added : “ This being the final, everyone will be hoping that both the teams play up to their full strength. The competition will be tough but it would be exciting and the key for us would be to get the early momentum in the best-of-three finals.

Hi-fliers skipper Tushar Khandekar too agreed that it will be a tough battle on the cards. “It will be surely a tough contest. Both the teams have played each other once in the championship and whichever team would be converting the half-chances, will win,” said Khandelkar. Upon the inability of Hi-fliers’ forwards to score a field goal in most of the instances, Khandelkar commented that in the end what matters most is scoring goals, whichever way they come. “A goal is a goal whether it comes through a field goal or penalty corner. One must remember that it is the forward line that fetches most of the short corners and whichever team is able to convert those chances would definitely be hold an upper hand,” said Khandelkar.