The Indian hockey team earned a bonus point with a 4-2 penalty shootout win over Great Britain in their second leg of the FIH Pro League tie here on Saturday. The two teams were tied 4-4 in regular time. Captain Harmanpreet Singh (7th minute), Mandeep Singh (19th minute), Sukhjit Singh (28th minute) and Abhishek (50th minute) scored for India. Sam Ward was the star for the home side, scoring all four goals. He scored goals in the eighth, 40th, 47th and 53rd minutes.
India got a bonus point
The win earned India a bonus point but the team still remained second below Britain in the table. India has 24 points in 12 matches. Britain is on top of the table with 26 points from 11 matches. The Indian team had earlier lost 2-4 to Britain in the first leg here but then defeated Belgium 5-1. The Indian team will now travel to Eindhoven to play the hosts Netherlands on June 7 in the Europe leg of their FIH Pro League campaign.
India thrash Uzbekistan 22-0 in first match of Women’s Junior Asia Cup
Britain scored the first goal
Great Britain started brightly and in the third minute Phil Roper had the first shot at goal but it was well saved by Indian goalkeeper Krishna Bahadur Pathak. Three minutes later, United earned consecutive penalty corners and Pathak again managed to keep both attempts down. A minute later, Mandeep earned a penalty corner for India and captain Harmanpreet’s dragflick stunned Britain goalkeeper David Eames to take a 1–0 lead.
Score tied 1-1 in first quarter
However, the joy of the Indian team soon ended when Ward scored a penalty corner in the very next minute to level the scores at 1-1. United got another corner at the end of the first quarter but Nicolas Bandurak’s effort was unsuccessful. In the second quarter, both the teams continued to play fast. Mandeep put India ahead 2-1 by scoring a brilliant effort from Hardik Singh.
Team India was ahead at half time
Three minutes before the end of the first half, United had another chance to score but Pathak again saved it. After two minutes of the first half, Sukhjeet scored a goal to make the score 3-1. Both the teams again failed to create any chances till the 40th minute and India missed another penalty corner. Ward reduced the score difference by scoring a powerful flick. India missed too many penalty corners but the British team could not capitalize on the opportunities.
Harmanpreet made many attempts in the last quarter
Soon after the start of the final quarter, Harmanpreet’s effort was blocked by Shipperle. Then Ward brought his team on par with a field goal in the 47th minute. Britain dominated the final quarter but in the 50th minute, Abhishek scored a field goal on the counter-attack to give India a 4–3 lead. But Ward again managed to bring Britain on par with his fourth goal. Manpreet Singh, Harmanpreet, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay and Abhishek scored for India in the shootout. Will Callanan scored the only goal for Britain in five tries, while Zachary Wallace, Shipperle and Roper missed.
