a splendid India Coming back from a three-goal lag, they beat Poland 6-4 in a blistering final to win the maiden FIH Hockey 5S Championship here on Sunday.
India, who had topped the five-team league standings with three wins and a draw en route final, ended their campaign with an unbeaten record.
It was India’s second win of the day over the same opponents. India had beaten second-placed Poland 6-2 with two wins and the same number of losses in a round-robin league match three-and-a-half hours earlier in the day.
Playing their third match of the day, Poland scored three goals without an answer in the first five minutes of the game through Mateusz Nowakowski (1st), Wojciech Rutkowski (fifth) and captain Robert Pawlak (fifth), after which the Indians were short. Surprised for
Poland played just one match against India’s two on Sunday before the final and it could probably have some effect on Graham Reid’s men in a fast-paced format, played in just 20 minutes in a match.
But the Indians made a quick comeback from the opening setback and Sanjay and captain Gurinder Singh found the target in the eighth and ninth minutes respectively, falling 2-3 behind for breath.
It was only a matter of time that the Indians regained their mojo as they took a 4-3 lead following brilliant field goals from Dhami Bobby Singh (11th) and the tournament’s top scorer Raheel Mohammed (13th).
Once they were on the climb, the Indians had no stopping against a hapless Poland as Raheel (17th) and Singh (19th) scored their second goals of the match to complete the formalities.
Polish captain Jacek Kurowski pulled back once in the 18th minute to close the gap.
Raheel finished the tournament at the top of the goalscorer’s chart with 10 goals from five matches.
Earlier, India scored four goals in the second half to beat Malaysia 7-3 in a scintillating performance before beating Poland 6-2 in the second match of the first day.
India were at the top of the five-team standings after the round-robin league stage with 10 points from three wins and one draw. India on Saturday played host Switzerland 4-3 and arch-rivals Pakistan 2-2.
Pakistan could have qualified for the final and faced India, winning their final league match against Malaysia, but the match ended in a 5–5 draw. Pakistan finished third with five points.
The Indian women’s team, however, failed to make the final after beating hosts Switzerland 4-3 on the first day in the second match after a 4-4 draw with South Africa. Indian women would have entered the final if they had defeated South Africa by a two-goal margin. They finished fourth in the five-team standings with four points from one win, one draw and two losses.
In the first men’s match of the day, Raheel Mohammed continued his goal-scoring spree as he scored three goals against Malaysia and then struck twice against Poland to book a summit clash berth in India.
He scored the target thrice on Saturday too – twice against Switzerland and once against Pakistan. He has scored eight goals in four matches to lead the tournament’s goal scoring charts.
Apart from Raheel’s three strikes in the 8th, 14th and 18th minutes, Gursahibjit Singh (1st and 17th) and Sanjay (10th and 12th) were the other Indian scorers against Malaysia, including Rosdi Firadas (4th and 13th) and captain Noor Nabil (9th). Scored through. ,
India took a 3-2 lead at half time in a match that lasted 20 minutes.
India completely dominated the match against Poland and took a 5-0 lead at half time with goals from Sanjay (2nd), Raheel (4th and 9th), Gursahibjit Singh (7th) and Mandeep Mor (10th) .
Moirangthem Rabichandra (15th) added a goal for India in the second session, while Arzynski Grajn (13th) and captain Kurowski Jacek (16th) closed the gap for Poland.
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