India vs Pakistan, FIH Pro League: In the FIH Pro League match played on Friday at Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Center in London, the Indian men's hockey team defeated its arch-rival Pakistan by a huge margin of 7-1. After falling behind for a while in the first quarter of the match, the Indian team made such an aggressive comeback in the match that the Pakistani defense completely fell apart like a pack of cards. In this explosive and one-sided victory of India, Sukhjeet, Harmanpreet, Hardik, Jugraj, Abhishek, Raj Kumar Pal and Dilpreet Singh scored one goal each. At the same time, star midfielder Hardik Singh was chosen player of the match for his strong play in the midfield. Earlier on June 23 also, the Indian team had defeated Pakistan by a margin of 4-3.
Both the teams started the match in a very aggressive manner. Within the first 90 seconds of the game, India got its first penalty corner due to the brilliant running of Mandeep Singh, but the team could not convert it into a goal. On the other hand, the Pakistani team, playing on the counter-attack strategy, got a penalty corner in the 13th minute, which their captain Abu Bakar Mahmood put into the goal post through a drag-flick. Thanks to this goal, Pakistan was ahead 1-0 at the end of the first quarter.
In the second quarter, the Indian team completely turned the tide of the match on the basis of long and accurate passing. In the 18th minute, Pakistan suffered a big blow when a pass from their player Ali Ghazanfar hit the face of teammate Ahmed Nadeem and he had to leave the field. Taking advantage of this pressure, the Indian team won a penalty corner in the 20th minute. Captain Harmanpreet Singh's bullet drag-flick was cleverly deflected by Sukhjeet Singh into the net and the score leveled at 1-1. After this, captain Harmanpreet himself scored another penalty corner in the 26th minute straight into the top left corner, giving India a 2-1 lead at halftime.
After halftime the Indian forward line completely dominated Pakistan. India got two consecutive penalty corners, on the second of which India was given a penalty stroke. Hardik Singh converted it into a goal without making any mistake. Then immediately after Pakistan blocked a penalty corner, India counter-attacked at lightning speed. After excellent coordination between Dilpreet and Sukhjeet, the ball reached Jugraj Singh, who hit it straight into the goal post and increased the lead to 4-1.
In the 41st minute, Sukhjeet, who was in excellent form, created another great chance and passed the ball to Abhishek, who scored a brilliant field goal while running to make the score 5-1. Raj Kumar Pal scored a goal in the 44th minute of the game. India maintained its dominance even in the fourth and last quarter. In the 54th minute, Dilpreet Singh converted a beautiful field move into a goal and scored India's seventh goal and sealed the historic 7-1 victory. With this victory, India achieved full 3 points.
