India stepped closer towards securing a place in the final of the 2019 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup with a 7-3 win over Canada on Wednesday.
Mandeep Singh was the hero of the afternoon for the Men in Blue, hitting a sublime hat-trick against the dismal Canadians. Varun Kumar, Nilkantha Sharma, and Vivek Prasad were also on the scoresheet as well in the easy win.
.@mandeepsingh995 starred for Team India as they continued their winning streak by registering a 7-3 win over Canada in their 4th match of @azlancup. Read more: https://t.co/vOGQvARONj #IndiaKaGame #SultanAzlanShahCup2019 pic.twitter.com/YA8bc1VpmB
— Hockey India (@TheHockeyIndia) March 27, 2019
This was another statement of power by the Indian hockey team following an authoritative 4-2 win over hosts Malaysia on Tuesday.
The Game
India swiftly put forward their attacking foot and almost scored through Shilanand Lakra and Simranjeet Singh.
Their persistent attack paid off in the 12th minute when drag-flicker Varun Kumar scored through India’s first penalty corner to make it 1-0.
The Manpreet Singh-led team continued to put bodies forward and pressurize the Canadian defence in the second quarter as well. In the 20th minute, Sumit Kumar put a brilliant through ball to release Mandeep Singh. The latter finished the move with a sublime finish past the Canadian keeper to make the score 2-0.
Canada rarely made an enterprise in the attacking third with the North Americans kept busy by the Indian strikers launching a wave of attacks. In fact, goalkeeper Antoni Kindler seldom had a moment of relief.
However, after making a series of impressive, the Canadian keeper failed to deny Mandeep Singh in the 27th minute. The latter had latched onto a Kothajit Singh’s pass to score his second. The 24-year-old forward soon grabbed his hat-trick a couple of minutes later after playing a good one-two with Sumit Kumar. By the break, India was already leading the contest by a comfortable margin of 4-0.
Then in a rare occurrence in the 35th minute, Canada opened their account with Mark Pearson converting a penalty corner strike.
Two minutes later, Amit Rohidas chipped in another goal from a corner to make the score 5-1.
Although Canada did make a mini-comeback of sorts with goals from Fin Boothroyd (50′) and James Wallace (57′) making it 5-3 in the final quarter. However, it was probably too late as Vivek Sagar struck in the 56th-minute strike before Nilakanta Sharma scored a field goal in the 58th minute to ensure India won the match comfortably.
GOAL!
A long pass by Hardik trapped superbly by Nilakanta Sharma to score the 7th goal for India in 58th minute!
CAN 3-7 IND#IndiaKaGame #SultanAzlanShahCup2019 pic.twitter.com/4HFHsLFef1
— Hockey India (@TheHockeyIndia) March 27, 2019
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