Indian men beat South Africa to book berth CWG hockey semi-finals

Scotland,  July 31, 2014: In their last preliminary match, India continued their good form and put up a good performance against the South African team at Glasgow, Scotland. With the match being a decider for the semi-final berth, India could have played for a draw while it was a must win match for the South Africans. But India made their intentions clear from the very first minute, of not settling for anything less than a win today.

Getting into business immediately India earned their first penalty corner opportunity just 3 minutes into the game. Realising that the early goal will help put pressure on the opponents, V R Raghunath made no mistake in converting the penalty corner and opening the scorecard 1-0.

This left the opponents stunned as they were not expecting to go on the back foot so early on in the game and before they could come out of the setback, the very next minute India earned their second penalty corner but this time it was saved by the South African goalkeeper Erasmus Pieterse.

 India kept the pressure on the opponents and in the 9th minute India’s Rupinder Pal Singh was successful in converting the penalty corner and helping his team take a 2-0 lead. While South Africa kept looking for the opening, getting past the defence of India was proving to be a huge task for them. In the 22nd minute Ramandeep Singh scored a field goal for India to take the lead further to 3-0. India already high on momentum kept looking for scoring opportunities and in the 26th minute SV Sunil got a brilliant pass and he made no mistake in converting the fourth goal for India.

 With 4-0 on the score board both the teams started the second half again with great speed and determination. While India was looking at more goals, South Africa on the other hand looked at opening their account. Wanting to change gears, South Africa in the 42nd minute finally registered their first goal, which came from the stick of Taine Paton and taking the score tally to 1-4.  With the first goal registered South Africa yet again scored in the 47th minute and this time it was through a penalty corner coming from the stick of their Captain Austin Smith.

 With 4-2 on the scorecard, India ensured a good ball possession hereon hence not allowing the opponents any opportunity to attack. It was in the 58th minute when Manpreet Singh’s diving goal helped India take the score card to 5-2. The rest of the session saw both teams trying to score but were unsuccessful in doing so and the game ended with India taking a convincing win and the bus to the semi-finals.

 India will take on New Zealand in semi-final-1 on August 2.

-HI Photos and Release