Press Trust of India
Valencia, July 2: The Indian men’s hockey team managed to hold Argentina to a thrilling 3-3 draw in the Six Nations Invitational tournament in their penultimate round-robin match, here Saturday.
It was a fast-paced game with both sides resorting to aggressive measures. Argentina took the lead a few seconds before the end of the first quarter when Matias Paredes scored.
But immediately after the break, India hit back. A combined move down the middle between Sardar Singh and Ramandeep Singh saw the latter being fouled by an Argentine defender inside the ‘D’. The referee had no hesitation in awarding a penalty to India and Rupinder Pal Singh duly converted it to restore parity in the game in the 16th minute.
However, Argentina soon hit back, first through a penalty corner conversion by Gonzalo Peillat and then via Lucas Vila’s field goal, going into half time with a 3-1 lead.
India rallied together in the second half and came out with some brilliant moves. They earned their first penalty corner in the final seconds of the third quarter, but Rupinder’s flick was saved by the Argentine custodian.
India got a goal back early in the last quarter when Danish Mujtaba sliced through the opposition defence and provided the perfect pass for Ramandeep to tap in.
The goal galvanised India and in the 57th minute they got their equaliser. Ramandeep, SV Sunil and Akashdeep Singh combined together to find Devinder Singh with the perfect through ball and he did not make any mistake to hit the target.
