Harmanpreet Singh and Akashdeep Singh scored a brace each as the Indian men's hockey team produced a completely dominating performance to rout Canada 8-0 in their third match and jump to the top of Pool B at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Wednesday.
Harmanpreet (7th, 54th minute) converted two penalty corners whi🃏le Akashdeep Singh (38th, 60th) scored two fine field goals. Amit Rohidas (10th), Lalit Upadhyay (20th), Gurjant Singh (27th) and Mandeep Singh (58th) were the other goal scorerওs for India.
With the win, Indi🐼a jumpe♑d to the top of the pool ahead of England. The Indians play Wales in their final group match on Thursday.
The Indians recovered from the jolt of a 4-4 draw against England after 🐷leading 3-0 at one stage in their last match as they came out with more purpose and completely dominated Canada in the first two quarters.
India's first scoring chance came in the fifth minute in the form of back-to-back penalty corners but Canada's Balraj Panesar made a goal-line save to deny Ha♏rmanpreet from the second attempt.
But Harmanpreet was not to be denied much longer 🧸as she gave India the lead two minutes later with a powerful drag-flick from another set 𒀰piece.
Three minutes later, defender Rohidas scored a brilliant field goal. He stormed into the circle with his silky stick wo🌸rk and slotted the ball home after receiving a defence splitting long ball from Varun Kumar.
The Indꦆians continued in the same vein in the second quarter and secured two quick penalty corners in the 19th minute, the second of which resulted t♛o a goal.
Lalit slapped in a loose ball off🍎 a rebound after Varun Kumar's flick🍌 was kept away by Canadian goalkeeper Ethan McTavish to hand India a 3-0 lead.
The Canadian custodian pulled off another fine save in the 24th minute to keep ou🍎t Abhishek's reverse shot from the top of the circle. McTavish made another fine save to deny Jugraj Singh from another penalty corner.
Seconds later, a diving Gurjant defl🔥ected in Hardik Singh's pass from the left flaꩲnk to extend India's lead.
Canada got a penalty corner in the 28th minute but failed to make use of it as India went into the halfway break with a comforta𓃲ble 4-0 lead.
The Indians kept up the pressure after 🌸the change of✅ ends and mounted attacks after attacks on the Canadian citadel.
In the 38th minute, ✅Akashdeep scored with a slap shot after being set up by a 𒐪fine one-touch play by skipper Manpreet Singh and Nilkanata Singh.
In the fourth and final quarter, McTavish made a double save fr🦹om a penalty corner to deny Mandeep and Vivek Sagar Prasad.
Canada secured a pen🐟alty corner soon aꦫfter but India defended the chance.
In the final six minutes of the match, India fired three m🌟🎐ore goals which came from the sticks of Harmanpreet, Mandeep and Akashdeep.
