Saturday, December 7, 2013

10th Junior Men’s World Cup Hockey: Gurjinder saves India’s blushes against Canada

Playing in front of the home crowd in a marquee event can sometimes put extra pressure on the team and the Indian seemed to have felt it in the manner in which they lost to the Netherlands 2-3 in their tournament opener.

Pressure or no pressure, India desperately needed the three points from their game against Canada to keep their quarterfinal hopes alive given their final league tie is against a formidable opponent like Korea.

And the sloppiness of the first game and gaping holes in the defence showed itself right from the starting hooter when Canada pulled ahead in the 3rd minute when skipper Sukhi Panesar beat the in-form Indian goalkeeper Harjot Singh all ends up.

The early strike brought the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium to a silence, throwing the onus on the hosts to mount a fightback. Taken aback by Canada drawing first blood, India upped their tempo but their attacks lacked precision as the forwardline was grossly guilty of throwing it away inside the Canadian ‘D’. Canadian goalkeeper Kevin Pereira only made things tough for India nullifying one raid after another.

Gurjinder Singh frittered away two penalty corners in the first half as the home crowd grew impatient. It was left to Mandeep Singh to ease the Indian nerves scoring off an indirectly taken penalty corner close to half-time to keep his side in the contest.

Coach Gregg Clarke must have had indulged in tough talking with the boys at the breather, but it did not show initially in the second stanza as Canada thwarted India to no end. The red brigade regained the lead in the 51st minute through Gordon Johnston and it looked like India were staring at a second consecutive defeat.

Akashdeep Singh injected hope in the Indian camp scoring his second goal of the tournament in the 57th minute, leaving India with enough time to go for the match-winner.

The match could have gone either way, but talented Gurjinder Singh drilled home a penalty corner in the 69th minute to ensure his side pocketed full points – the set-piece earned following a video-referral after skipper Manpreet Singh appealed for an infringement.

2 comments:

suneeth nair said...

Sir, Do you write for any websites?

Suhrid Barua said...

hey suneeth, nice to hear this is my own hockey-centric site...........i have earlier worked for various newspapers and websites and now write for my own blogsite......do become my blog follower and put thoughts and views

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