Times of India: Tour of Europe: India beat Austria 4-3 in a thriller

NEW DELHI: Ramandeep Singh and Chinglensana Singh scored a brace each to help Indian men’s hockey team end its ‘Tour of Europe’ on a high. India registered a thrilling 4-3 victory against Austria in their fifth and final match of the tour at Amstelveen in Netherlands on Wednesday.

It was Chinglensana’s goal in the dying seconds which sealed the win for India, after they conceded two late goals to give Austria a chance for a comeback.

It was India’s third victory on the trot, after beating the Netherlands in consecutive games. The young side led by Manpreet Singh finished their five-match European tour with three wins and two defeats.

Austria took the lead early in the first quarter, before Ramandeep scored the equaliser in the Q2 through a penalty corner.

India put the pressure on the Austrians by creating more penetrations through the midfield as the game progressed. But they couldn’t convert them to goals and went into the half-time break with score reading 1-1.

India started the third quarter aggressively and Ramandeep thundered in a screamer through a reverse hit from the top of the circle to put the visitors in front for the first time in the match.

The constant pressure resulted in another goal for India, with Chinglensana tapping in the ball into the nets after receiving a clever pass from Varun Kumar.

With less than ten minutes left in the match, Austria scored two quick goals to level the scores and left the Indian side stunned. But India vice-captain Chinglensana scored a brilliant goal with just ten seconds left on the clock to give India a well-deserved victory.

India started the tour on a wrong note and lost both their matches against fifth-ranked Belgium. But the sixth-ranked India came out strongly in the second phase of the tour and defeated the higher-ranked Netherlands (world number four) twice in two games to resurrect their tour.

Six uncapped players were included in the Manpreet-led squad for this tour. Chinglensana was named Manpreet’s deputy while some of the key players who featured in the World League Semi-Final were rested.