Lille (France): Indian Hockey team began their hockey preparation for next month’s London Olympics on a strong note as they beat France 8-2 in the first of the two friendly matches to be played here.
After the start, India were soon pushed the wall after they went a goal down, but then they held on to their nerves and soon SK Uthappa equalised for India. Drawing parity India were looking solid and their perseverance paid off after star drag flicker Sandeep Singh converted a penalty corner strike gave India 2-1 lead.
Gurvinder Singh Chandi soon made it 3-1 to take India to a comfortable position. But few minutes from the breather, scored through a penalty corner variation to reduce the gap.
After the change of ends, India started from where they left and scored within two minutes after Shivendra Singh found the nets through a deflection off a VR Raghunath shot. Just a minute after scoring his first goal of the match, Shivendra sounded the cage once again with a powerful strike off a Gurbaj Singh pass.
At the 40th minute mark, Raghunath converted a penalty corner to take a 6-2 lead.
The Men in Blue kept looking for openings in the match and found one when Sarvanjit Singh scored a field goal. With match already in India’s kitty, centre forward Sandeep Singh added one more field goal to finish the match 8-2.
Indian Sports News Network
