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

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

However, the 0-3 score did not stop the Veerans in their tracks as they got back into the game soon after when they earned two quick penalty corners in the 15th and 16th minutes. And off the second one, they played a dummy before Raghunath effected the drag-flick to pull one back. However, six minutes later, Chennai Veerans earned their fourth penalty corner and Raghunath was bang on target, firing in. Breaking into the Sultans’ defence Veerans’ skipper Adam Sinclair, Mahendra Singh and Sanawar Ali attacked the rival citadel and came out good.

Hyderabad Sultans continued with their attacking style and scored yet another goal when Diwakar Ram’s drag-flick in the 39th minute found the target.

Sultans kept up the tempo and struck their fifth goal in the 44th minute through a brilliant field effort by Sardara, his second goal of the match. In a late surge, Chennai struck again in the 64th minute when their Dutch recruit Joost van Den scooped into the empty goal. But it proved to be a little too late in the day.

With this loss, Veerans will be relegated from the Premier division and they are likely to play the qualifying tournament next year.