Indian Men’s Hockey team won against New Zealand by 3-2 in their opening Pool B match of the Paris Olympics on Saturday.
Skipper Harmanpreet Singh saved his best for the last as he scored the winner from the spot a minute from full time to hand India a 3-2 win against New Zealand.
Sam Lane (8th minute) and Simon Child (53rd) were the goal scorers for New Zealand, while Mandeep Singh (24th), Vivek Sagar Prasad (34th) and skipper Harmanpreet Singh (59th) struck for India.
New Zealand started slow and decided to keep themselves confined to the defense area, however, they stroked their first goal of the match through Lane from their first penalty corner and stunned India.
India started on the offensive with skipper Harmanpreet and Abhishek pressing hard on the New Zealand defense.
Stunned by the early goal, India pressed hard and controlled the proceedings for most part of the match.
The Indians utilized both flanks to build their attacks with the Black Sticks who were sitting back and defending while looking for counters.
Contrary to the scoreline, India's chief coach Craig Fulton might be a little worried about the team's penalty corner conversion rate.
India earned five penalty corners but converted just one, while New Zealand had nine set pieces utilizing two of them.
India, though, drew level in the 24th minute through a penalty corner when Mandeep scored from a rebound after Harmanpreet's flick was saved by New Zealand goalkeeper Dominic Dixon.
A couple of minutes after the change of ends, Dixon saved Mandeep's reverse shot from the top of the circle after being fed by a precision assist from Harmanpreet.
Vivek scored from a goalmouth melee four minutes into the second half to hand India the lead.
But within two minutes, New Zealand pressed hard on the Indian defense and secured four back-to-back penalty corners which yielded no result.
Trailing, the Black Sticks kept up their attacking intent and secured two more penalty corners in quick succession, the second of which found the back of the net after Child converted from a rebound to level the scores.
But that was not the end of the match as the Indians put on relentless pressure in search of a valuable win and in the process Sukhjeet Singh earned a penalty corner with his smart play, which resulted in another set-piece move.
The second penalty corner turned into a penalty stroke for India after the drag-flick from Harmapreet, hit Child on the body and the Indian skipper made no mistake in ensuring the vital win for his team.
India will next play the formidable Argentina in their next Pool B match on Monday.
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