Sandeep, Sunil star in India’s win

Drag-flick specialist Sandeep Singh and striker S.V. Sunil scored two goals each as India dished out some entertaining hockey to beat South Africa 7-4 in the Champions Challenge here on Sunday.

Playing briskly in order to match their robust rivals, the Indians capitalised on the scoring opportunities that came their way after the host made it 4-4 in the 55th minute of their Pool A game.

Sandeep converted two penalty corners in the 14th and 35th minutes while Saravanjit Singh (29th) and Tushar Khandekar (41st) scored one apiece.

South Africa kept pace with goals from Justin Reid-Ross (sixth minute), Marvin Harper (38th), Miguel de Garcia (46th) and Tim Drummond (48th) before India struck a purple patch with three goals in the last 15 minutes.

Sunil, opening up the South African defence with some fine runs down the right flank, first capitalised on a Khandekar pass before slamming home the rebound off a penalty corner in the 66th minute.

A minute before Sunil’s goal, Rupinderpal Singh had made no mistake with a penalty stroke as India surprised the rival defence on several occasions and ran away with a well-deserved victory.

The victory gave India four points from two matches, the same as Belgium, which beat Poland 7-3, thanks to Tom Boon’s four-goal burst.

The results:

Pool A:India 7 (Sandeep Singh 2, S.V. Sunil 2, Sarvanjit Singh, Tushar Khandekar, Rupinderpal Singh) bt South Africa 4 (Justin Reid-Ross, Marvin Harper, Miguel de Garcia, Tim Drummond); Belgium bt Poland 7-3.

Pool B:Argentina bt Canada 3-2; Malaysia drew with Japan 2-2.