India pumped in three first-half goals to edge past Belgium 4-1 for their second win in the six-nation Champions Challenge hockey tournament for men on Tuesday.
Goals by Sandeep Singh (13th), Prabhjot Singh (18th), Shivendra Singh (31st) and Dilip Tirkey (67th) set up the Indian victory, their second in three matches.
Belgium drew some consolation from Gregory Gucasoof’s penalty corner conversion (26th) as they slipped to their second defeat. India next play Argentina on Thursday with the tournament taking a day’s break on Wednesday.
Given the talent and potential, besides the weakness of the Belgian defence, the Indians should have won by a far bigger margin but for some unimpressive performance in the midfield and also at the finish.
India held the upper hand for much of the first-half but after taking a 2-0 lead, they slacked considerably. Mistakes flowed from the defenders and Belgium were quick to seize the initiative to scramble home a goal.
The Indians tightened up in the final 10 minutes of the half and a third goal put them in good heart as the teams took the breather.
It was Sandeep Singh who opened the account with a drag-flick conversion of the first penalty corner in the 10th minute. The Indians should have been up 2-0 almost immediately thereafter, but Prabhjot’s attempt from the right was efficiently deflected to safety by goalkeeper Cedric Degreve.
Prabhjot made amends in the 18th with an opportunistic goal as defender Thomas van den Black failed to cleanly stop a Roshan Minz hit from the right. Prabhjot pounced on the deflection and sounded the boards.
Hereabouts, the Indians relaxed just a wee bit to allow Belgium to forge a few moves one of which resulted in a penalty corner that Gucasoof converted with a powerful drag-flick.
With the match heading to half-time, India came up with a swift counter from the right and Shivendra Singh, having just then come off the bench, dived to deflect the ball that came off Prabhjot’s stick to the boards following a terrible mix-up in the Belgian defence. Tirkey rounded off India’s fine day in the office with a strike in the 67th minute.

Kiwis win
Earlier, New Zealand swept past England 3-1 to register their third straight win. Goals by Ryan Archibald (10th minute), Hayden Shaw (48th) and Dean Couzins (62nd) carried the Kiwis to nine points from three games while England, for whom Rob Moore (43rd) scored the only goal.
Argentina rode on two first-half goals to script a much-needed win against Japan. It was Argentina's second win in three matches while Japan slid to their second defeat.