Junior Hockey World Cup: India thump listless Canada 13-1

The Indian men's junior hockey team bounced back from their loss at the hands of France to beat Canada in a strong display of attacking play and clinical finishing.

The Indian hockey team rose to the occasion and thumped a listless Canada 13-1.

This was on a day when a whopping 80 goals were scored on the day with teams registering astronomical scorelines.

Spain beat the USA 17-0, while Argentina got the better of Egypt 14-0. The Netherlands found the net 12 times against Korea and won with a scoreline of 12-5 while France beat Poland 7-1.

Spain set a new record for the number of goals scored in the Junior Hockey World Cup in a single match, as the European side scored 17 goals past the USA. The previous record was a 13-0 victory for India against Singapore at the 1982 Junior Hockey World Cup.

All-round India tick all boxes

The Indian junior hockey team bounced back from a shocking and demoralizing defeat in tremendous style. Despite Canada’s best efforts, India pushed and probed and then exploited the gaps that they created in the Canadian defense.

Read: Hockey Junior World Cup: Manpreet Singh shares captaincy tips with Vivek Prasad

The scoring opened with a goal from Uttam Singh, who later limped off with an ankle injury. The goals then came in a steady flow, with India keeping the pressure high until the final whistle.

Sanjay (17th, 32nd, 59th) and Hundal (40th, 50th, 51st). Uttam Singh (3rd minute, 47th), Shardanand Tiwai (35th, 53rd), skipper Vivek Sagar Prasad (8th), Maninder Singh (27th) and Abhishek Lakra (55th) were the Indian goal scorers.

It was the second match in succession that vice-captain Sanjay scored a hat-trick. Hundal Singh also chipped in with a hat-trick and was awarded player of the match.

India kept up the pressure and extended their lead in the eighth minute through skipper Vivek who flicked in after being fed by Maninder Singh.

Canada secured two back-to-back penalty corners in the 11th minute but wasted both as India ended the first quarter with a 2-0 lead.

Soon after the resumption, India made it 3-0 when Sanjay scored from the spot after being awarded a stroke following an infringement from their first penalty corner.

Two minutes from half-time, Maninder registered his name in the scoresheet, slapping home a reverse shot after dribbling past two Canadian defenders to give India a 4-0 lead.

Canada did rally on the stroke of half-time through a well-taken penalty corner from Chris Tardif but they were chasing shadows for much of the 60 minutes.

The Indians continued their offensive intent and secured two more penalty corners in quick succession.

Putting the contest to bed with sublime stroke making, the Indian players went on a rampage in the last two quarters, netting at will as a listless Canadian defense did little to stop the onslaught.

After the match, Hundal was visibly excited and said he was happy with the way the team had bounced back. He said:

“We knew we had to come back and have a good performance today. For the next match [against Poland] it is all about building on this performance.”

Canada captain Manveer Jhamat reflected on how hard it was for his team to be chasing the scoreline and rued the fact that they were on the wrong end of the result. He said:

“It was an amazing game, unfortunately it was not the result we were after. It was a hard fought game and the guys worked right until the end. We were just unfortunate in the D on either end. For the next game, we will compete in the same way and we will move on from this. For every single game we prepare and we will be fully ready for the next game.”