Sandeep sets up India’s win against South Africa
Biswajyoti Brahma, TNN
NEW DELHI: India played an intense, attacking game to overcome a spirited challenge from South Africa and win the second hockey ‘Test’ 2-1 on Tuesday.
At a time when the hosts were struggling to get past the rival defence, despite playing aggressively, defender Sandeep Singh took the game to a different level when he almost scored a field goal in the 33rd minute. Well, instead of taking the final hit himself, he smartly set it up.
The Indian drag flick star grabbed the ball just outside the rival circle after an infringement on Chingelnsana Singh and swiftly dribbled past three players before passing it on to his junior teammate from Manipur who just had to tap the ball in.
Sandeep, who was on the field for about 30 minutes in the match, was not done yet. As the clocked ticked away after the South Africans equalised in the 43rd minute through Lance Loew to raise the prospect of a draw, the player from Punjab sounded the board with his favourite shot – the scorching flick.
After failing to capitalise from two earlier penalty corners, India earned their third barely four minutes to go for the hooter. Sandeep simply lapped it up.
“This is not the first time that Sandeep has played up front. We have tried him up front earlier in Australia. We want to make him a versatile player,” coach Michael Nobbs said.
Watching Sandeep in awe was none other than Dilip Tirkey, a defender himself and now a national selector. “I have never seen him go that far on the ground. He’s doing really well,” said Tirkey of his former teammate.
India had to fight hard to take a 2-0 lead in the series – they won the first ‘Test’ on Monday – as the South Africans came up with a much better display. If the visitors had erred on Monday, they showed a lot of resilience on Tuesday. Their defence was so tight that the rampaging Indians found it difficult to breach it.
“We played 80 per cent better than what it was yesterday,” South Africa’s coach Gregg Clark said. “It was a much better show, but at the same time disappointing that we lost.”
India made as many as nine changes in their squad for the match today. “This particular combination had not played together before, so you could see some unforced errors during the match,” Nobbs said.
The South Africans, on their part, rued the fact that they allowed India to run away with the match by conceding late goals in both the halves.
“We have to make sure that we do not let in soft goals like these,” defender Lloyd Madsen said.