Indian men progress to round 3 with Ireland

By Ritu Sejwal, TNN

NEW DELHI: The Indian men’s hockey team concluded the Hero Hockey World League Round 2 in style, defeating Bangladesh 5-1 at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium on Sunday.

With this, India topped the points table with 15 points followed by Ireland (12 points), who defeated China 4-0, and Bangladesh (9 points). India and Ireland advanced to Round 3.

Rupinder Pal Singh, Danish Mujtaba (2), Malak Singh and Akashdeep Singh scored for the hosts, while Mamunur Rahman was the lone scorer for Bangladesh.

“I am happy we’ve advanced to the next round. We played consistently throughout the tournament,” coach Michael Nobbs said.

Bangladesh found early success when Mamunur converted a penalty corner in the 4th minute. Indians stepped up the gas and Raghunath’s long hit into the ‘D’ was deflected in by Mujtaba for the equalizer.

India continued to attack in the first half. Just when one thought the half would end 1-1, Rupinder converted a penalty corner in the 32nd minute to put his team ahead.

Bangladesh took a back seat as India continued to dominate. The hosts, though, failed to convert three penalty corners in a span of four minutes.

But Akashdeep Singh soon made up for the misses when he deflected in a smooth pass from captain Sardar Singh to strengthen India’s position.

Malak made it 4-1 in the 58th minute before Mujtaba completed the tally by adding the fifth goal in the 63rd minute.

In another match, Oman beat Fiji 7-3.

There were prizes for the leading goalscorers of the tournament, India’s Raghunath and Ireland’s Alan Sothern and Player of the Tournament, Sardar Singh.