Indian team raised the bar, outplayed Germany 6-3 to top the Hockey Pro League table

The confident Indian team registered a thrilling 6-3 win over Germany in their FIH Hockey Pro League match at Rourkela’s Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium on Monday (March 13).

With the win against Germany, India is leading the Hockey Pro League table with 17 points and have a better goal difference than the Spanish team which is also with 17 points, but is in second place.

On Sunday (March 12), skipper Harmanpreet Singh guided India to a 5-4 win over Australia. A back-to-back win over Germany, the 2023 world champions, in the ongoing Hockey Pro League will certainly give a big boost to the Indian side, whose main target in the coming months is to title at the postponed Asian Games scheduled to be held later this year in September in China.

The Indian team played with intent to win from the word go and narrowly missed to move the scoreboard in the opening two minutes. The body language of the Indian players depicted that they were hungry and full of energy despite conceding a goal in the third minute.

Abhishek and Selvam Karthi scored two goals each, while Jugraj Singh and Harmanpreet Singh completed the goal tally. Selvam was elated to have received the player of the match award for his outstanding performance. Tom Grambusch, Gonzalo Peillat and Malte Hellwig scored for Germany.

Germany made it 3-4 in the third quarter, but India shifted top gear in the fourth and final quarter to score a comprehensive win against the European side. Karthi deflected the ball inside the goal post in the 46th minute, while five minutes later Abhishek completed the tally (6-3).

The win over Germany was India’s fifth outright victory in seven matches played in the 2022-2023 season of the Hockey Pro League.

Surprisingly, the Indian team looked disjointed in January and finished a disappointing ninth in the 2023 Hockey World Cup held in Odisha.