Penalty corner specialist Rupinder Pal Singh scored a brace as India began their men’s hockey campaign in the Rio Olympics with a morale boosting 3-2 win against Ireland in their opening pool encounter here on Saturday
Indiau00c3u00a2u00c2u0080u00c2u0099s Rupinder Pal Singh (right) celebrates a goal against Ireland with teammates in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday.
RIO DE JANEIRO: Penalty corner specialist Rupinder Pal Singh scored a brace as India began their men’s hockey campaign in the Rio Olympics with a morale boosting 3-2 win against Ireland in their opening pool encounter here on Saturday.
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India's Rupinder Pal Singh (right) celebrates a goal against Ireland with teammates in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday. Pic/AFP
Drag-flicker VR Raghunath scored India’s opener in the 15th minute, while Rupinder doubled the lead in the 27th minute in the Pool ‘B’ match.
John Jermyn (45th) pulled one back for Ireland but Rupinder delighted the Indians with another successful penalty corner conversion.
Later, Conor Harte (55th) brought Ireland into contention but India saw off late nervous moments before winning 3-2.
The win must give relief to the Indians, who failed to win a single match in the London Olympics four years ago.
World No 5 India started the game on a positive note, making inroads from the right where vice-captain SV Sunil made his speedy runs. His couple of crosses were blocked by an agile Irish goalkeeper David Harte.
Ireland played an open game and it helped the Indian team in showing its counter-attacking prowess.
India’s midfield of Sardar Singh, Manpreet Singh and Danish Mujtaba overpowered the Irish midfield and India made successive penetrations late in the first quarter and it resulted in four penalty corners.
In the other match in Pool B, the Netherlands and Argentina shared the spoils in a 3-3 draw.
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