FIH Men’s Junior Hockey World Cup: India punch quarters ticket

Madurai: India booked their quarterfinal berth with a 5-0 victory against Switzerland in the Pool B encounter of the FIH Men’s Junior Hockey World Cup here at the Madurai International Hockey Stadium on Tuesday.

Manmeet Singh and Sharda Nand Tiwari’s brace each helped world No. 2 India register a comfortable victory in their final group stage encounter.

Birthday boy Manmeet Singh opened the scoring in the early moments of the game with a fine shot into an open goal, courtesy of an assist by Dilraj Singh. The Indian team earned a penalty corner, but Timo Graf made no mistake to deny India’s opportunity.

Manmeet Singh got his name on the score sheet once again to complete his brace. Talem Priyobarta took a free hit and a deflection of Manmeet’s stick helped the hosts double their lead. Two minutes later, drag-flicker Sharda Nand Tiwari converted a penalty corner to extend India’s lead to 3-0 at the end of the first quarter.

Arshdeep Singh scored India’s lone goal in the second quarter to head into the halftime with a four-goal lead. Manmeet Singh took his shot at goal, but a good save by the Swiss goalkeeper Timo Graf denied him a hat-trick. However, Arshdeep made the best use of his wrists and found the back of the net with a backhand shot. The third quarter ended with no goals and the Indian Colts had the upper hand with four goals. Switzerland earned a penalty stroke in the dying minutes of the third quarter. Yannick Hug stepped up to take the shot, but a good move towards his right by the Indian goalkeeper, Prince Deep Singh, helped the team continue their clean sheet streak. In the final quarter, Sharda Nand Tiwari continued his successful penalty corner conversion rate, brushing one past the Swiss defenders and goalkeeper to score his second goal of the night. 

Arshdeep tapped the ball into the goalpost in the dying seconds of the match. However, the goal was disallowed following a video referral as Indian attacker Dilraj Singh pushed a Swiss defender inside the circle, resulting in a 5-0 victory for the hosts.

Despite losing the game, a commendable performance from Switzerland’s goalkeeper, Timo Graf, was the highlight for the European nation. He denied the Bule Colts a few goals with some exceptional saves throughout the match.

India will have to work on their penalty corner conversion, having scored on two of the eight penalty corners earned. Both PC goals come from Sharda Nand Tiwari’s stick, who hasn’t been letting the side miss the services of star drag flicker Araijeet Singh Hundal.

Earlier in the day, Chile defeated Oman 2-0 in another Pool B contest at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium in Chennai. Felipe Duisberg and Tomas Taborga scored a goal each off penalty corners in the dead-rubber match to help the South American nation end their group stage campaign on a high. 

India topped Pool B with nine points, winning all three encounters. Switzerland (6 points), Chile (3 points) and Oman (0 points) were the three other nations pitted in the pool. The hosts will return to Chennai to play their quarterfinal clash on Friday.

Results: Pool B: India: 5 (Manmeet Singh 2nd, 11th, Sharda Nand Tiwari 13th , 54th, Arshdeep Singh 28th); Chile: 2 (Felipe Duisberg 10th, Tomas Taborga 47th) bt Oman: 0.