Antwerp (Belgium): The Indian junior men’s hockey team overcame an early 0-2 deficit to hold the Netherlands to a 2-2 draw in a hard-fought encounter at the U-23 Five Nations Tournament here, Saturday.
The Netherlands caught the Indian team’s defence off-guard early in the match with Marlon scoring the first goal in the first minute. The Indians seemed shell-shocked by the early setback and looked completely out of sorts. Taking advantage of this Jip Jansen scored in the 11th minute and in the first quarter itself the Men in Blue found themselves 2-0 down.
But India clawed back into the game in the second quarter. While the team’s defence held strong in the following minutes, the Indian attackers worked on creating scoring opportunities.
The team’s first breakthrough came in the 27th minute when Mandeep Mor scored a splendid goal to narrow the difference to 1-2.
After a goalless third quarter, the Indian team pushed for goals in the final quarter and their efforts paved way for Mor to score another goal in the 48th minute.
Though India stretched the Dutch defence as they vied for a winner, the team could not convert and were forced to settle for a draw.
The Indian team in the last quarter earned four penalty corners as they repeatedly caught the opposition on the wrong foot. However, they failed to convert a single one of those. Had they done so, they would have certainly won the game.
