India suffer heavy defeat again

Senior drag-flicker Sandeep Singh sounded the board in the second minute of the match on Saturday, while captain Rajpal Singh (15th) and Dharamvir Singh (41st) were the other scorers for India. The hosts scored through Jan-Marco Montag (11th), Florian Fuchs (16th), Maximillan Muller (50th), Christopher Zeller (64th) and Moritz Furste (70th).

Desperate to shrug off a 3-6 humiliation against Holland in the campaign-opener, India began aggressively with Sandeep scoring in the second minute through a penalty stroke.
Sandeep’s powerful drag-flick made a body contact with a German defender resulting in the penalty.

Stung by the early reversal, Germany went in the hunt for the equaliser but Indian custodian Sreejesh thwarted a few attempts in the early minutes. Montag produced the equaliser in the 11th minute when he creditably converted a penalty corner.

India broke back into the lead just four minutes later when Rajpal capitalised on a swift counter-attack organised by Mohd Amir Khan and Danish Mujtaba but could not maintain the difference as Fuchs found the back of Indian net within a minute.

In the second half, India took the lead for the third time against the world number two. Chikara snatched the ball from Deecke in the midfield to feed Amir, who deftly set up Dharamvir with a reverse and the Chandigarh youngster drove home in the 41st minute.

Germany, however, drew parity again with their captain Muller scoring in the 50th minute. As the deadlock continued, India committed a few unforced errors allowing the Germans to surge ahead.  Meanwhile, Japan beat favorites Holland 3-2 in another match of the day.