It was a case of so close but yet so far. Chennai Veerans very nearly scored their first win before Chandigarh Dynamos emerged 4-3 victors via silver goal in the Premier Hockey League here on Monday. Sandeep Singh was man of the match for Dynamos as he converted three penalty corners to bring in a hat-trick.

The show put up by Veerans was certainly a heartening one. Had they shown this spirit earlier in the league, the script would have been different and they would have been in a far better position on the points table.

Dynamos finished their league engagements with 14 points from six matches and are on par with Bangalore Hi-Fliers. Dynamos topped the table with a positive goal difference of four as against Hi-Fliers' three. Veerans have just a point with one match to play on Tuesday.

On Monday, it was a surprise to see Veerans forwardline and midfield operating well. Skipper Adam Sinclair was in good form and had several good looks at the Dynamos' goal. He was ably supported by V Raja, Suresh and Mahendra Singh. They cut through the rival ranks with a fair amount of ease.

Dynamos, on the other hand, took things lightly having already qualified for the semifinals. They appeared to be taking things easy and, barring one foray in the very first minute of the match, there was no real effort from them. Inderjit Singh Chadha had a poor game and so did Prabhjot Singh and Deepak Thakur. They succeeded in earning penalty corners and the team's drag-flicker Sandeep did the rest.

Veerans drew first blood through their skipper Sinclair in the 15th minute. He gave the ball to Mahendra Singh and ran to the goal mouth from the right flank. Mahendra, from a near zero angle from the left, shot towards the goal and Sinclair deflected in to put the Southern team ahead. Chadha forced a penalty corner for Dynamos in the 24th minute and Sandeep had no trouble converting it.

It was then that Dynamos perhaps sensed that Veerans were getting a little dangerous and became careful. In fact, they even made some threatening advances to the rival goal but the Veerans' defence held out well. Particularly good was defender VR Raghunath, who came up with some clean tackles and clearances.

Veerans were in the lead again in the 34th minute through Sinclair. Raja passed to Suresh from just beyond the 25-yard line and the latter sent a measured cross to Sinclair, who scored without difficulty to put his team 2-1 ahead.  Sandeep was back in the goal-scoring act again and pumped in the equaliser in the 44th minute, another good flick from the Dynamos' defender.

Veerans then forced three penalty corners in the space of three minutes and took the lead in the 51st when Raghunath put in a powerful flick.

By now, Dynamos too were in the thick of the action and, with a partisan crowd to egg them on, went all out to earn penalty corners. Sandeep scored the third goal of his match (60 th minute), the 3-3 equaliser for Dynamos, when his deceptive drag-flick kept low and hit the board.

With the scores level at three apiece, the silver goal rule came into effect to break the deadlock. Under the rule, even if a team scores, the match goes on till the silver goal period runs out.

Neither team scored in the first five minutes. But the second five saw Ravi Pal Singh scoring the winner (76th). Thakur had taken a shy at the goal but goalkeeper PR Sreejesh blocked. Ravi Pal's reverse hit off the rebound found the target.

Tuesday's match: Chennai Veerans vs Hyderabad Sultans (3.00 pm).