Lucknow: Favourites India continued their strong showing in the men’s Junior Hockey World Cup as they scored a dominating 5-3 win over England in a Pool D encounter to virtually secure a place in the quarterfinals, here Saturday.
However, It was England who drew the first blood through a 10th minute-field strike from Jack Clee. Pressing hard in search of the equaliser, India earned their first penalty corner in the 23rd minute. Varun Kumar’s try from the set piece was saved by the English defence but from the resultant attack Parvinder Singh drew level from a move that was set up by skipper Harjeet Singh on 25 minutes.
Thereafter, it was India all over as they secured back-to-back penalty corners but failed to utilise. In the 35th minute, Armaan Qureshi made the scoreline 2-1 in favour of India just at the stroke of half time.
After the change of ends, India earned their fourth penalty corner with the opening move of the second half and Harmanpreet Singh rose to the occasion to extend the home team’s lead two minutes into the second period. Next it was Simranjeet’s turn to register his name in the scoresheet in the 45th minte. Dragflicker Varun then made the scoreline 5-1 favour by converting India’s fifth penalty corner in the 59th minute.
Towards the end England went full throttle and were also rewarded with two goals — from Will Calnan (63rd) and Edward Horler (67th).
PTI