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The exciting action from the Men's Hockey World Cup 2018 being held in the state of Odisha continued as we saw the first action from Pool D of the group stage competition.
The Pool D has been labelled as the ill-fated Group of Death in this year's Hockey World Cup edition as three former champions were pitted against each other.
The Netherlands, Germany and Pakistan were pooled along with Asian hopefuls Malaysia.
The first match of the Pool D saw the three-time World Champions Netherlands take on Malaysia at the Kalinga Stadium in the city of Bhubaneshwar in Odisha.
The action from the other Pools in the group stage has been nothing short of thrillers as the major contender teams had been made to work hard for their points.
Australia managed to narrowly get past Ireland, debutants China forced a draw against European powerhouse England and Argentina scraped past Spain in a seven-goal thriller.
With such adrenaline pumping action in the initial days of the competition, hockey fans in India were in for a treat as the Netherlands stepped on the turf to face off against Malaysia.
The Netherlands were in control for the most part of the match tonight and moved the ball around well on the turf.
A resilient goalkeeping performance from Subramiam Kumar was not enough to keep the Dutch attacking firepower at bay.
Jeroen Hertzberger, Mirco Pruijser, Robbert Kemperman, Mink van der Werdeen and Thierry Brinkman were the goalscorers for the Oranje as they won 7-0 in the end.
The Netherlands won the match in a dominating display of hockey as they won over the Malaysians to start off their World Cup 2018 with a huge statement.
We take a look at three players who stood out from the crowd in the match today.
#1 Jeroen Hertzberger
The Netherlands attack was charging at the Malaysian defence from all angles and exploiting the gaps almost at will They used the speed of their wingers well to penetrate the circle and build attacks.
The Malaysian defence were caught in a spot of bother in the first quarter when a slick move by the Dutch saw the ball at the mercy of Jeroen Herztberger and the forward hit the ball into the net with a reverse hit, which was reviewed by the umpire but the goal stayed.
He added another goal to his tally in the second quarter when Mirco Pruijser broke through the defence after a turnover and provided Hertzberger with another chance to score and the forward obliged.
To top off his evening, he scored a stunning goal towards the end of the match after his run through the backline and got his hat trick.
#2 Subramian Kumar
The Malaysian defence was dominated on the turf by the Netherlands attack throughout the duration of the match.
The only shining light tonight for the South Asians was their man between the goal posts, Subramian Kumar.
Kumar kept the plethora of Dutch attacks at bay from all the sides of the circle as he found his defence floundering to contain them.
Kumar was called into action right from the initial minutes of the match as Jeroen Hertzberger tested him with a menacing hit from the top of the circle.
He continued to thwart the attacks in the second quarter as well keeping out a flurry of attacks from the experienced midfielder Robbert Kemperman producing a double save.
Kumar ended up conceding seven goals but it was more a fault of a leaky defence than his goalkeeping prowess which was the only thing that kept the Dutch attack from taking their goal tally into the double figures.
#3 Mirco Pruijser
Mirco Pruijser played in the potent midfield of the Netherlands side as they took over the control of proceedings on the turf against a pretty feeble Malaysian team. Pruijser was highly involved in the Dutch attacks winning the ball in the midfield on multiple occasions.
He used his passing skills well ahead of the Malaysian defence to keep breaching their lines and kept creating chances for the Dutch, only to be thwarted by the resilient Kumar in the Malaysian goal.
When the Dutch finally opened the scoring in the match, Pruijser sprung into action and capitalized on a turnover to finish a well-worked goal past Kumar.
He created a goal for the forward Jeroen Hertzberger as well in the second quarter as the Dutch continued to press for the advantage in the match.
Head to Sportskeeda to check out the Hockey World Cup schedule for the upcoming matches
