Antwerp, Belgium: India produced a much-improved show as they posted an easy 3-0 victory over Poland to notch their second consecutive win in the Hockey World League Semi-Final here on Tuesday.
The Walmiki brothers, Yuvraj (23rd minute) and Devinder (52nd), got their names on the scoresheet with flash goals and captain Sardar Singh (41st) sounded the boards with a firm reverse drive to secure India’s win at the KHC Dragons Stadium.
India had launched their campaign with a 3-2 victory over France on the opening day.
Breezy conditions and 16 degree Celsius temperature seemed to be to Poland’s liking and they did well to frustrate the Indian strikers in the first session, not allowing them a decent look at the goal.
Crowding their defence, the Polish players were able to frustrate the Indian strikers and in turn banked on long-passes from their territory to build up some brisk counters. But, in the end, the Indians found ways to break down the crowded Polish defence to pump in three goals.
It was Poland who earned the first penalty corner in the 20th minute, but captain Pawel Bratkowski’s rising drag-flick was palmed away by goalkeeper P.R. Sreejesh.
Yuvraj opened the scoring for India as he capitalised on a lucky break in the 23rd minute, when a long diagonal ball deflected towards him off a defender’s stick and he made no mistake in flicking it past the helpless goalkeeper.
Sardar increased the lead in the 41st minute with a stinging reverse drive from the top of the circle into the left corner of the goal.
Devindar then scored his second goal in successive matches in his debut tournament by deflecting in a diagonal ball from Chinglensana Singh in the 52nd minutes.
In the women’s event, New Zealand marched to their second consecutive win by beating a lacklustre India 5-0.
The win will give the New Zealand outfit a lot of confidence going into their match against Australia on Thursday, while India will have very little time to recover from such a horrendous outing to face Poland on Wednesday.
After two matches, India remain without either a point or a goal in the competition, after losing their first match 1-0 against Belgium.
—Agencies
