Valencia, Spain, 25 October 2016: India’s Junior Men Hockey team beat Germany 3-1 in their opening game of the 4 -Nations Invitational Tournament.
India’s Junior Women Hockey team opened their tour of the 5 Nations Invitational Tournament with a 3-0 loss to England.
In the opening Junior Men encounter, India and Germany started off with a highly intense first half that saw a lot of attacking intent from both sides.
It was India that wrested the initiative with their first penalty corner PC) of the game, Varun Kumar’s conversion giving them the lead in the 17th minute. India kept up a high pressing game consistently but were undone by a Kai Aichinger goal in the 22nd minute to concede the equaliser. Three minutes later, Varun converted another PC to put India back into the lead as they went into halftime.
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India were stubborn in defence in the second half not allowing the Germans too many forays into their area and constantly keeping them at bay. The one clear chance for Germany was from a PC in the final minutes which was palmed away expertly by Vikas Dahiya, to help preserve India’s lead.
With time running out and the score line against them, Germany started committing numbers forward. India took advantage of their high line and Ajay Yadav, finished a well-worked counter attack in the 68th minute to give India a well-deserved victory.
Indian women start off with a loss
In the Junior Women’s game, India started off very strongly and their defensive organisation denied their opponents any spaces in the opening periods. It took England until the 22nd minute of the first half to reel in a shot at India’s goal. Their attempt off a PC was converted by Erica Sanders to give England the lead. Megan Crowson scored the second for England to give them a 2-0 lead as they went into halftime.
Crowson doubled her tally for the game in the 43rd minute to hand India a 3-0 loss in the opener.
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India’s Junior Women play Spain at 22.30 hours IST on 25th October 2016.
India’s Junior Men play Belgium at 20.30 hours IST on 26th October 2016.
