India suffered their second successive loss in the European leg of the FIH Men’s Hockey Pro League against Great Britain. They suffered a loss by 2-4 on Saturday. India had lost to Olympic champions Belgium 1-2 on Friday.
While Timothy Nurse struck the first field goal for Great Britain in the sixth minute, Harmanpreet Singh leveled the score from a penalty corner in the 13th minute. Sorsby Thomas scored Britain’s second in the 31st minute, and the team regained the lead. His goal was followed by Lee Morton’s goal in the 33rd minute.
Harmanpreet scored his second goal for India, again from a penalty corner which came in the 42nd minute. With the goal, he became the all-time top-scorer in the Pro League with a total of 35 goals. Bandurak Nicholas regained England’s two-goal lead with his 53rd-minute strike at the Lee Valley Hockey Centre, and India could not put up a fight from there.
Nurse opened the account as dribbled his way past Lalit Kumar Upadhyay and Mandeep Mor down the left to enter the Indian ‘D’ before shooting the ball past keeper Krishan Bahadur Pathak, who started at goal ahead of the seasoned PR Sreejesh.
Before the hosts took the lead, Brendan Creed’s pass found an unmarked Sam Ward, but the latter’s attempt was thwarted by a brilliant Pathak at the Indian goal.
A few moments later, Ward was again in the thick of things but Pathak made a timely intervention by kicking the ball away to safety.
Then, the duo of Jarmanpreet Singh and Karthi initiated the first real attacking move by the Indian team, surprising the English goalkeeper and nearly scoring the equalizer.
The Indians found the equalizer when Harmanpreet Singh hit the back of the net off a penalty corner in the 13th minute.
Their morale boosted by the equalizer, the visitors looked to dominate the Britons and called the shots in the second quarter when an Indian goal was also disallowed following a review after the English opted for a video referral.
Meanwhile, Wallace Zachary’s penalty stroke was saved by a diving Sreejesh to keep the match in the balance.
However, the hosts regained the lead when Sorsby converted a penalty corner in the third quarter. Morton Lee made it 3-1 for England with the home team’s second strike – a field goal – in the third quarter.
Latest Sports News
For all the latest Sports News Click Here
