FIH Hockey Pro League: Indian men’s team goes down to Netherlands in shoot-out after 2-2 draw

Rotterdam (the Netherlands):  Harmanpreet Singh converted a penalty corner in the final minute to help the India fight back and hold hosts the Netherlands to a 2-2 draw but went down 4-1 in a shoot-out in their FIH Hockey Pro League match here on Saturday.

India conceded an early goal when Tijmen Reyenga scored a field goal in the ninth minute as the Netherlands held sway in the first quarter.

Dilpreet Singh scored in the 21st minute to level scores for India in the 21st minute. However, the Netherlands converted a penalty corner in the 46th minute to surge 2-1 ahead. But just when it was looking like the Netherlands will win the match, Harmanpreet Singh scored the equaliser in the final minute of the match as India came back strongly to equalise the score 2-2.

In the shoot-out, the Netherlands scored via Bijen Koen, and Jonas De Geus while Harmanpreet Singh and Abhishek failed in their attempts for India while Vivek Sagar Prasad scored the only goal for India in the shoot-out.

The defeat in their penultimate match fetched India one point while the Netherlands jumped up to the top position in the table with the two points bagged in the shoot-out win. The two points took the Netherlands tally to 33 points, one point ahead of World and Olympic Champions Belgium. The Netherlands still have three more matches in hand and thus looks in a good position to win the title. India are third in the standings with 30 points from 13 matches.

The Olympic bronze medallists will meet the Netherlands in their last league match on Sunday and will be hoping to win it and consolidate their position in the standings.

–IANS