Dragflicker Rupinder Pal Singh scored a brace as the Indian men’s hockey team overcame a demoralising defeat in the previous match to cruis...
Dragflicker Rupinder Pal Singh scored a brace as the Indian men’s hockey team overcame a demoralising defeat in the previous match to cruise past Spain 3-0 and register its second win at the Tokyo Olympics on Tuesday.
Drubbed 1-7 by Australia in their last match, India produced a spirited performance against world No 9 Spain and scored through Simranjeet Singh (14th minute) and Rupinder Pal Singh (15th and 51st) to record a comfortable win in their third Pool A match at the Oi Hockey Stadium.
India, ranked fourth in the world, had earlier defeated New Zealand 3-2 in their opening fixture. Spain, on the other hand, are yet to register a win in the competition.
Spain drew 1-1 against Argentina before losing 3-4 to New Zealand. The Indians will next play reigning Olympic champions Argentina on Thursday.
For any team it is always tough to recover from a morale-shattering loss within a day, but India looked more organised and sorted against Spain on Tuesday.
Manpreet Singh’s men played high pressure hockey from the word go and dominated the possession in initial 10 minutes even though they failed to create any real scoring opportunities.
In the ninth minute, India came close to breaking the deadlock but Simranjeet’s deflection from skipper Manpreet Singh sailed...
