Both Men and Women Indian teams clinically outclassed their opponents in their respective matches against France and Poland. Men beat France by a margin of 6-2, while women won the match 3-0 with clean sheet. Experienced forward Shivendra Singh opened the account for India in 4th minute of the game in a eye pleasing move with one touch passes involving Tushar Khandekar and Sarvanjit Singh. Sandeep Singh scored next three goals in 9th, 30th and 37th Minute on two penalty corners and a penalty stroke (30th). In 39th minute, SV Sunil found the net after recieving a well judged and accurate pass from Shivendra Singh. India’s sixth and last goal came from a powerful of Tushar Khandekar, after collecting a pass on the go at the D-top from Sarvanjit Singh.

Sandeep Singh

France scored both of their goals through penalty corner in 35th Minute(after the hooter of half time) and 57th minute through Lucas Sevestre and Fabien Magner. Indian team was dangerous in counter attacks, but showed some lack of tooth in finishing the moves.  For some moments mid-fielders from both the sides looked out of ideas, but defence did reasonable except few mistakes, like conceding soft penalty corner. Presence of any experienced mid-fielder like Gurbaj Singh, Arjun Halappa, VS Vinaya, Vikram Pillay or Bharat Chhikara, might have enhanced the peformance Indian team.

Continuing the good performance from last match, women’s team played brilliantly today and showed how to win game with combination of individual skills and team work with great presence of mind. The Rani trio of (Ritu Rani, Rani Ramphal and Poonam Rani) registered their names in the score sheet by outsmarting Poland defenders and Goalie NOWICKA Dominika.  Ritu Rani (14th minute), Rani Rampal (36th minute) and Rani Poonam (62nd minute) scored for India. The goal from Rani Rampal was treat to watch, quite similar to her yesterday’s goal against Canada, started off from dotted line from the base line on a free hit, weaved through the wall of defenders, umpire said play on, and showing great presence of mind, she did not waste time to control ball before dodging the goalie and pushed the ball on target from a baseline.

Jose Brasa Effect:

Ukraine’s women team being helped tactically by Indian men’s team former chief coach Jose Brasa, has performed reasonably well in holding the hosts for draw (1-1), beating Canada (5-2) but lost to tournament favorites South Africa (0-2).

In the mean while, lowly ranked Italy (W) held the tournament favorite South Africa for 1-1.

22nd February’s Fixtures:
W 10:00am UKR – ITA,       M 12:00pm POL – SIN
W 2:00pm CAN – POL ,        M 4:00pm ITA – FRA
W 6:00pm IND – RSA ,   M 8:00pm CAN – IND

Results:
W CAN – UKR 2 – 5 (1 – 2)           M SIN – CAN 1 – 15 (1 – 8 )
W ITA – RSA 1 – 1 (1 – 0)              M POL – ITA 7 – 2 (4 – 2)
W POL – IND 0 – 3 (0 – 1)    M FRA – IND 2 – 6 (1 – 3)

Men’s Points Table (3 Matches each team) Continue reading →