It turned out to be yet another goalfest for India in the ongoing FIH Men's Junior Hockey World Cup as the hosts advanced into the quarter-finals with a big win over Poland by 8-2. After suffering a narrow defeat at the hands of France, India have registered two big wins in the mega event to make it to the last eight. Sanjay Yadav and Araijeet Singh Hundal scored two goals as India dominated Poland for a batter part of 60 minutes.
The man with consecutive hat-tricks, Sanjay opened the scoring for India early with a goal in fourth minute. There was another goal-scoring opportunity in the seventh minute via penalty corner but the Polish defence delayed the second goal. In the next minute, Hundal scored a goal from India’s second penalty corner in the first quarter.
Poland had a goal-scoring opportunity as they earned their first penalty corner in the 14th minute but Indian defence kept the shot out. 10 minutes later, Sudeep Chirmako extended the lead with his first goal. Just one goal was scored in the second quarter.
In the third quarter, Uttam Singh joined the party and scored a goal in the 35th minute as Polish defenders had no clue. This was Uttam’s fourth goal in the tournament. Three minutes later, India earned their third penalty corner. Sharda Nand Tiwari converted the penalty corner into a goal. Just two minutes after Gurmukh gave Sudeep an assist as the latter found the back of the net for the second time.
Poland were at their attacking best in the last two minutes of third quarter. Poland earned two penalty corners but failed to convert it into their first goal on both occasions. They were on the prowl again in the 49th minute but were denied a goal despite two consecutive penalty corners. Poland finally scored their first in the 50th minute as Wojciech Rutkowski opened the team’s account off penalty corner. Poland narrowed down India’s lead with Robert Pawlak getting one past goalkeeper Pawan.
However, India made up for their mistakes with two more goals in the last five minutes. Sanjay scored his second in the 57th minute whereas Hundal scored one in the dying moments of the fourth quarter to make it 8-2.
On the other hand, Vivek Prasad had a hard time in the middle as he was issued a green card in the 22nd minute followed by a yellow card in the 46th minute. The two fouls kept Prasad out of the game for a total of seven minutes. As Poland attacked more in the last quarter, Manjeet Singh was also given the yellow card.
