Indian teams qualify for semi-fils

Gold Coast, April 10 : It was a field day for Indian men's and women's hockey teams as they defeated Malaysia 2-1 and South Africa 1-0 respectively to enter the semi-fils at the 21st Commonwealth Games (CWG) here on Tuesday.

While the men's team rode on a couple of pelty corner conversations from Harmanpreet Singh (3rd, 44th minutes) to record their second consecutive win, the eves saw Rani Rampal scoring the winner in the 47th-minute to remain on top of Pool A with nine points. The men's team are also top of Pool B with seven points from three matches.

India will play their last pool match against second placed England on Wednesday. With the top two teams advancing to the last four stage, India are assured of a place in the semi-fils as they will finish second in the pool in case of a loss.

India got off to an ideal start with forward Mandeep Singh winning the first pelty corner of the match in the second minute.

Malaysia found the equaliser immediately after the start of the second quarter as a fast move down the right saw Faisal beat the Indian defence with an excellent run before receiving a defence splitting pass which found him in a one to one situation with India goalkeeper P.R. Sreejesh.

In the fourth quarter, S.V. Sunil earned India a pelty corner in the 57th minute. But an alert Malaysian goalkeeper came up with a brilliant save to keep Harmanpreet Singh from completing his hat-trick.

Coming to the eves, who came into the match on the back of consecutive wins over England and Malaysia, got off to a breezy start but the South Africans matched them with pace and precision.

In the third quarter vneet Kaur led the counter-attack, before passing it onto the Vanda Katariya who was positioned at the top of the circle. Vanda passed the ball to Rampal, who made a beautiful turn after receiving the ball, holding off goalkeeper and a defender, to roll the ball in for the 1-0 lead. IANS

Top Headlines

No stories found.
Sentinel Assam
www.sentinelassam.com