AGENCIES
NEW DELHI, Feb 9: After the high of the Olympic bronze medal in Tokyo, the Indian men's hockey team started 2022 in style, thrashing France 5-0 in their opening match of the FIH Pro League at Potchefstroom, South Africa, on Tuesday.
Harmanpreet Singh and Varun Kumar got the first two goals from penalty corners before Shamsher Singh, Mandeep Singh and Akashdeep Singh found the target to secure a thoroughly one-sided verdict.
India face hosts South Africa in their next FIH Pro League encounter on Wednesday.
The Indians, under head coach Graham Reid, took time to get into groove as the French exerted some pressure in the opening quarter, which ended goalless. The few opportunities that India got - including two successive penalty corners - were repelled by resolute defending or wasted by errant shooting. It was in the second period that the floodgates opened with Harmanpreet (21st minute) and Varun (24th) getting on the scoresheet through set-pieces, both finding the target with low shots to the goalkeeper Arthur Thieffry's right. and Shamsher capping a quick counterattack with India's third goal, the final pass coming from Abhishek. |
