India 7 Pakistan 1 England 3 Argentina 3
London, England: India recorded a big victory against Pool B rivals Pakistan while Olympic champions Argentina fought back from three goals down to claim a hard-earned draw in Pool A against host nation England on day four of the Men’s Hero Hockey World League Semi-Final in London.
The day’s play opened with a classic contest between Pakistan and India, with a large crowd enjoying the sunshine and a dominant performance from India who ran out 7-1 winners with an array of high quality strikes to move to the top of Pool B. Pakistan hit the frame of the goal in the opening period before Harmanpreet Singh fired home just ahead of the quarter-time break with a double from Talwinder Singh taking the score to 3-0 at half time. Harmanpreet made it 4-0 early in the third quarter before Akashdeep Singh and Pardeep Mor chipped in. Shortly after Pakistan’s Muhammad Umar Bhutta netted a consolation goal, India completed the match scoring through Akashdeep Singh, who claimed his second of the match.
“I thought Pakistan were the better team in the first quarter and they created more opportunities but after we scored the first goal we started to play according to our plan”, said India Head Coach Roelant Oltmans after the match. “We scored some great goals today and when we score the type of goals that we did today, that is what makes a coach happy. I enjoyed the way we played, but as always I look for things to improve in our performances but scoring seven and conceding one is good.”
Pakistan finished the day at the bottom of the Pool B table and in danger of missing out on the competition quarter finals. They will need a positive outcome from Monday’s meeting with Scotland if they are to maintain hopes of securing a place in the cross-over quarter-finals and keep alive hopes of securing World Cup 2018 qualification at this event.
Photos A. Bhurji Sports Media Group.com.au
