Indian men continued their gradual climb up the table with a 3-1 win against Ireland in the FIH Pro League on Friday even as the women continued their losing streak, going down 4-0 to Germany at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar.
The contest was closer than the difference in rankings would suggest. Ireland played positive and attacking hockey from the start and forced India to constantly regroup and find ways around the Irish play. The visitor also went ahead early with Matthew Nelson feeding Jeremy Duncan right in front of the goal and the latter slotting home in the eighth minute.
The setback seemed to wake up India from its slumber. There was an urgency to its attack and it paid off in the 22nd minute. Rajinder Singh, consistently among the most impressive of players so far, stole the ball and passed on to Jarmanpreet Singh on the sideline, who found Abhishek Nain inside. Mandeep Singh, received the ball from almost 35 yards out, ran up inside and slammed home, all in one quick motion, to level scores.
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India scored two more, through PC rebounds, and had several more chances but for Jamie Carr in the goal. Luke Roleston, who replaced him in the final quarter, was equally impressive. To their credit, the Irish kept pressing hard while maintaining a stubborn defence but were unable to break the Indian structure.
The women’s woes continued, suffering their fourth loss, handing Germany its first win in seven games of the competition and slipping to bottom place on the table. The Indians were completely outplayed in every department for most of the game, only managing to hold their own and show some fight in the third quarter that elicited two PCs, both wasted.
For the rest, specially the first 30 minutes, the Indians managed to reach the German circle a grand total of two times, running around clueless and constantly conceding space and possession to a team that is in a rebuilding phase after the Olympics. The German domination started in the third minute when Aina Kresken sent the ball through a maze of half-a-dozen Indian defenders for Amelie Wortmann to tap it in.
Post break, India tried to wrench back the initiative and put the opponent under pressure but once Germany overcame that brief period, it was back to business as usual in the final quarter, adding two more to the scoreline.
The Dutch women proved their dominance with a 5-1 victory against England, Olivia Hamilton managing the consolation goal after the Dutch struck thrice in six minutes in the third quarter to seal the deal.
SCORES
Women: 5 (Joosje Burg 27, Pien Dicke 33, Luna Fokke 37, Fredrique Matla 38, Fay van der Elst 50) bt England 1 (Olivia Hamilton 57)
Germany 4 (Amelie Wortmann 3, Sophia Schwabe 18, 47, Johanna Hachenberg 59) bt India 0
Men: India 3 (Mandeep Singh 22, Jarmanpreet Singh 45, Sukhjeet Singh 58) bt Ireland 1 (Jeremy Duncan 8).
