Hyderabad Sultans led by Sardara Singh dominated the proceeding from the word go. Employing an attacking strategy, Sultans took the lead in the very fifth minute with Bikas Toppo with the help of Didar Singh scoring the first goal. Riding high on the lead, within two minutes, Sultans earned the first of their three short corners and a drag-flick specialist from Uttar Pradesh, Diwakar Ram, made it 2-0 scoring a low-flick into the boards after Nitin set it up perfectly, off a Sardara inoculation.

Living to his reputation, Sardara Singh demonstrated swift action which resulted in another goal third in the 14 th minute of the game. The combination of Hyderabad forwards Didar Singh and Sardara Singh worked out well to put their team in commanding state.

However, 0-3 score did not diminish the fervour of the Veerans who got back into the game when they earned two quick short corners in the 15 th and 16 th minutes. And off the second one they played a dummy before Raghunath affected the drag-flick. The ball rolled in, after hitting defender Johnson Ekka’s stick on the goaline. Six minutes later, Chennai Veerans earned the fourth of their five penalty corners and Raghunath was bang on target once again scoring to the right of the goalkeeper. The scoreboard read 3-1 in favour of Sultans. Six minutes later, Chennai Veerans earned the fourth of their five penalty corners and Raghunath was bang on target once again firing a goal. Breaking into the Sultans’ defence Veerans’ skipper Adam Sinclair, Mahendra Singh and Sanawar Ali attacked the rival defence and came out good.

The Hyderabad Sultans continued to be in attacking mode and scored another goal which came in the form of Diwakar Ram’s drag-flick in the 39 th minute.

Sultans kept up the tempo and found the match-winner in the 44 th minute through a brilliant field goal scored by Sardara Singh which happened to be his second goal of the match. He went on a solo run driblling past two defenders and cut into the circle from the right. Chennai custodian Sreejesh rushed at him to the edge of the circle and Sardara pulled the ball to his right with a swift body dodge. Sreejesh fell to the ground but with the ball rolling towards the backline Sardara dived and slapped the ball into the goal from a very acute angle. (5-2)

In a late surge, Chennai pulled one back again in the 64th minute when their Dutch recruit Joost van Den scooped into the empty goal. But it proved to be little late.