AHL: India A men and women teams register win

Men’s team defeated Australian Capital Territory by 2-0 and women’s team beat Tasmania by 1-0

India A men’s hockey team beat the Australian Capital Territory 2-0 in their final Pool B match to progress to the next round of the 2017 Men’s Australian Hockey League. Affan Yousuf (5’) and Armaan Qureshi (46’) scored the goals for India.

Affan Yousuf scored a field goal in the 5th minute to give the lead to the visitors.

The score remained 1-0 in the first two quarters. The Australian Capital Territory went on to waste several chances in the first three quarters, and India took advantage of the same.

Armaan Qureshi scored India’s second field goal of the match in the 46th minute to make it 2-0 in India’s favour.

With this win, India A men’s team progressed to the next round of the tournament with two wins, one draw and a loss from their four Pool B games, accumulating a total of 7 points.

In the women’s match, India A team registered their first win at the 2017 Women’s Australian Hockey League as they beat Tasmania 1-0 in their last Pool B encounter. Sangita Kumari (19′) scored the only goal of the match.

The India A women’s team got off to a good start as they controlled the play in midfield throughout the first quarter. At the start of the second quarter, the visitors pulled off a beautiful team-move which was finished by Sangita Kumari in the 19th minute as she deceived Tasmania’s goalkeeper Ruby-Rose Haywood to give India the lead.

The third quarter saw both sides taking it to each other as some strong tackles were made from the players which resulted in a yellow card each for both the teams. Tasmania tried to break India’s back line but could not succeed.

India enjoyed their one-goal lead for the rest of the match and made several efforts to deny the Tasmanians the chance to equalise the scores. The visitors showed fight in the fourth quarter to win the match by a goal.

The team registered their first win of the AHL and will now progress to the next round of the tournament to play classification matches as they finished 4th in Pool B with a total of 3 points. The India A women will play Western Australia in Pool D on Thursday, 5th October 2017 at 15:30hrs IST.