Confident Mumbai take on UP tomorrow

High on confidence after earning a fighting 3-3 draw with Ranchi Rays in the Hockey India League opener here two days ago, Dabang Mumbai would take on UP Wizards in their second game tomorrow.
Mumbai, who trailed two-time champions Ranchi 1-3 till the final minutes, successfully converted a penalty corner into a field goal to draw level and earn two valuable points.
The home side, coached by four-time Olympian Jay Stacy of Australia, are now expected to go all out against the strong UP side at the Mahindra stadium.
Mumbai, led from the front by Germany ace Florian Fuchs, need to take full advantage of penalty corners, an area in which they were lacking in the game against Ranchi.

India international Nikkin Thimmiah, who notched up the score-levelling goal against Ranchi in the dying moments, exuded confidence ahead of the clash against UP and said Mumbai will learn from its mistakes in the previous clash.
"We are working on our mistakes and we won't do the same thing tomorrow. We will stay positive," he quipped.

UP, who start their season five campaign tomorrow, also have a balanced squad with P R Sreejesh, under the bar, and drag-flick penalty corner expert V R Raghunath, heading the list of current national squad players.
Ramandeep Singh, Akashdeep Singh and Chinglensana Singh are the other India players in their ranks.

They have a strong foreign presence with the pick being Argentina's Rio Olympics gold medal winning team member and penalty corner stalwart Gonzalo Peillat.
Peillat was the highest scorer in the quadrennial Games last year with eleven strikes, including a hat-trick against defending champions Germany in the semi finals, to his name.
Raghunath and Peillat would be a handful for any rival team while defending penalty corner shots.