The Hindu: India juniors lose to the Netherlands

India’s junior men’s hockey team lost a hard-fought game 2-3 to the Netherlands in a group stage encounter at the 8-Nations U-21 Invitational campaign here on Tuesday.

In the first quarter, the Netherlands snatched the initiative early with Jim van de Venne scoring in the 5th minute.

Despite the early setback India played an attacking game and looked for an equaliser. But the teams went into the break separated by the single goal.

In the second quarter with both teams attacked with vigour and India scored when Vishnukant Singh got the equaliser in the 23rd minute.

But within three minutes, the Netherlands restored the lead as van de Venne converted a penalty corner for his second goal of the game.

After the break, the Netherlands managed to score through Derck de Vilder in the 32nd minute.

Sudeep Chirmako capped off a superb move to reduce the deficit to one goal in the 37th minute.

The result: The Netherlands 3 (Jim van de Venne 2, Derck de Vilder) bt India 2 (Vishnukant Singh, Sudeep Chirmako).