India defeats New Zealand by 3-2 in double-leg Four Nations Invitational Tournament

Hamilton, January 24: Indian Men’s Hockey on Wednesday registered a thrilling victory over hosts New Zealand by 3-2 to begin their second leg campaign positively at the four-nation hockey tournament which is being held in Hamilton. It was Lalit Upadhyay, Harjeet Singh and Rupinder Pal Singh who scored in India’s win.

 

The team got off to a dominant start as Lalit Upadhyay scored a very 1st goal of the match in the 7th minute. It was Manpreet Singh who found Vivek Sagar Prasad swiftly moving towards the top of the circle, and though Vivek’s reverse hit rebounded off the New Zealand keeper, Upadhyay struck a thundering shot and took 1-0 lead.

However, New Zealand too made a strong come back in the second half and took advantage of a defensive mix-up to equalize through Daniel Harris in the 23rd minute. Later, Harjeet Singh converted India’s first penalty corner of the game in the 32nd minute to give India a 2-1 lead before Rupinder Pal Singh scored from another penalty corner four minutes later.

Just a minute after India took a 3-1 lead, Kane Russell scored for a penalty corner to reduce the visitors’ lead. However, India continued to defend strongly for the rest of the game to seal a 3-2 win. India will next take on Belgium in their second match. In the first-leg of the tournament, India got off to a good start with a 6-0 win against Japan but lost 0-2 to Belgium in the following match.