s2h Team
The Indian men waited long for this day. They were hungry to play a match, be it practice or a full encounter. They needed to get the feel of the turf and their own form after landing in Tokyo four days ago.
The day arrived on Thursday and the men in blue took the pitch at the Oi stadium, raring to go. They engaged Germany on the main turf around 12 noon (Japan time). India put up a measured fight in the first quarter before being forced onto the backfoot in the next.
However, a brave third quarter, the last session of a truncated match saw India scoring a brace of goals – Mandeep Singh and Dilpreet Singh on target – to make a match of it and feel reasonably satisfied even though Germany won 3-2. .
India-Germany Practice match at TokyoThe team came into the warm-up match after three days of quarantine. However, they had intra-team practice on all three days on pitches half the size of the North and South surfaces.
It was a hot day and after 30 minutes of warm-up, India looked likely to go one-up when they pressed hard on both wings. A penalty corner arrived, nine minutes into the encounter. However, Vivek Sagar Prasad failed to stop the injected ball which bounced out of the circle.
Two minutes later, Lalit Upadhyay, who the Germans found difficult marking, set up Gurjant Singh at the top of the D with a gentle pass. However, the young forward, ideally placed to score, failed to trap and drew a disbelieving shake of the head from Australian head coach Graham Reid.
A minute before the first break, Germany’s left-winger burst down the flank, outwitting Amit Rohidas, entered the circle displaying 3-D skills to find the net with a shot from an acute angle to make it 1-0.
Ten minutes later, Germany earned its first penalty corner. The direct hit was brilliantly saved by goalie Krishan Pathak – who replaced Sreejesh in the first quarter – but could not prevent from conceding another penalty corner from which the team enlarged the lead (0-2).
Sreejesh prevented the Germans from scoring a third goal when he stood tall at a penalty corner. Seven minutes into the third quarter he saved another to keep India well in the game.
It could have been scores level but Dilipreet fumbled with an excellent chance to score after Amit Rohidas set him up with a neat pass near the scoring area. It turned out to be a double whammy as Germany picked up the loose ball and launched an offensive from the left-wing which changed the scoreline to 3-1.
Germany India practice match at Tokyo. Lalit had a wonderful time, setting up goalsThe goal should be a cause Reid some concern and the Australian could well give his defence a piece of his mind at the team chat. Dilipreet, however, made partial amends for his earlier miss. The youngster pushed home from close range to make it 2-3 after Amit did the spadework.
Former Indian international and Olympian Shivendra Singh, manager of the team, served as an umpire partnered by another from the German camp.
A shootout contest followed the match with each team taking five attempts. India emerged winners after Sreejesh saved twice.
For India, Nilakanta Sharma, Lalit Upadhyay, Rupinder Pal Singh and Vivek Prasad scored before Harmanpreet Singh missed. Mandeep Singh, last in line, also scored after outwitting the German goalkeeper.
A fruitful practice match it was but not too much ought to be read of the outcome.