Head to head since 2013:

5 November 2022:

Spain v New Zealand (men) – Kalinga Hockey Stadium, Bhubaneswar (IND)

New Zealand earned their first points of the season as they beat Spain 1-0 in shootout after full-time score was leveled at 1-1. It was an evenly contested match with both teams testing the world-class goalkeeping opposite ends. Neither keeper would break the end of the third quarter. New Zealand custodians Dominic Dixon and George Enersen were both superb in their goal as they saved many attempts made by the Spanish forwards. However, Joaquin Menini opened the scoring for Spain in the 47th minute with a rocket of a finish.

While it all looked done and dusted for Spain, a mistake from the Spanish defender inside their circle in the 60th minute proved to be a blunder as umpire Rawi Anbananthan signaled for a penalty stroke.

Kane Russell didn’t make any mistake from the spot to keep his team in it. The 1-1 draw sent the teams to a shootout for the bonus point and it was here that the goalkeeping heroics of Dixon came alive. Dixon denied all five Spanish shots on his goal, while Sean Findlay was the lone Black Sticks player to tally.

— via FIH Media

That’s it for our coverage for tonight. Join us on Sunday, November 6, when India plays Spain, at 19:10 hrs IST.

India did not start the match well at all. Three defensive errors resulted in New Zealand racing to a 3-1 lead at the end of the first 15 minutes of play. But Graham Reid’s team came out a different squad after that brief break.

The hosts began to dominate play and possession, scoring the next six goals of the match. Ruthless in attack, the Indians were composed in defence as they’d get in crucial interceptions to stop any Kiwi build-up.

The Black Sticks though did manage to get another consolation goal towards the end. But Reid would not mind, as he got a glimpse of the character his team showed from coming back after being 3-1 down early in the match.

Braces from Harmanpreet Singh and Karthi Selvam, along with goals from Raj Kumar Pal, Sukhjeet Singh and Jugraj Singh accounted for India’s goals. Simon Child, Sam Lane, Jake Smith and Kane Russell scored for New Zealand.

Goal Minute Player Score
New Zealand 2 CHILD Simon 0 - 1
India 7 SINGH Harmanpreet 1 - 1
New Zealand 9 LANE Sam 1 - 2
New Zealand 14 SMITH Jake 1 - 3
India 17 Selvam Karthi 2 - 3
India 19 SINGH Harmanpreet 3 - 3
India 31 PAL Raj Kumar 4 - 3
India 38 Selvam Karthi 5 - 3
India 50 SINGH Sukhjeet 6 - 3
India 53 SINGH Jugraj 7 - 3
New Zealand 54 WOODS Nic 7 - 4

Vinayakk Mohanarangan: From 1-3 to 7-4, that was some fightback by Harmanpreet Singh and Co. A night to remember for Karthi, who scored twice. Harmanpreet was superb, and Jugraj enjoyed his late goal too. Three solid quarters for the Indians, Coach Reid had wanted four quarters of good intensity, he can be 75% satisfied with the fight he saw today.

Hardik Singh wins the player of the match award

Fulltime stats

THERE GOES THE FINAL HOOTER!

Q4: India 7-4 New Zealand - 2 mins to go

Q4: India 7-4 New Zealand - Good moves from both teams within the space of a few seconds at either end of the pitch. Once again, excellent composed defending quells the attack.

Q4: India 7-4 New Zealand - GOAL FOR NEW ZEALAND! The Black Sticks pull one back through Nic Woods. Good drag-flick, opens his body and sends it into the far corner. No chance for Kishan Pathak in the Indian goal. Just under 7 minutes to go in this match

Q4: India 7-3 New Zealand - Against the run of play, and after a long referral from New Zealand, the Kiwis win a PC.

Q4: India 7-3 New Zealand - GOAL FOR INDIA! Jugraj Singh scores his ninth senior goal. Gets the ball nice and low into the near corner.

Q4: India 6-3 New Zealand - Under 8 mins to go, and another PC for India.

Q4: India 6-3 New Zealand - Harmanpreet goes for it this time, but it gets a deflection and goes out of play. For now, that’s the end of the PC routine that resulted in five additional attempts.

Q4: India 6-3 New Zealand - New Zealand wins the referral - PC to India, not stroke.

Q4: India 6-3 New Zealand - New Zealand asks for a referral.

Q4: India 6-3 New Zealand - Jugraj Singh goes for it this time, good save from Dixon. There’s another scramble but the umpire stops it and awards a stroke to India.

Q4: India 6-3 New Zealand - India goes for a variation, and another PC.

Q4: India 6-3 New Zealand - Another PC for India, but the injection is too weak and the chance is wasted. But in the ensuing melee, India continues to keep possession and wins another PC.

Q4: India 6-3 New Zealand - Abhishek continues to annoy the Kiwi defence, winning another PC.

Q4: India 6-3 New Zealand - GOAL FOR INDIA! Sukhjeet Singh gets on the scoreboard this time. Excellent slap forward into the box by Manpreet, and Sukhjeet dives forward to get a neat deflection into goal.

Q4: India 5-3 New Zealand - Sumit with the first solid chance of this quarter. Good pass by Mandeep. Sumit’s shot gets a deflection away from goal to end the chance.

Q4 begins

End of Q3: India 5-3 New Zealand - Much better second half so far from India, starting with a goal from Raj Kumar Pal 33 seconds after the restart. That was the first time in this match where the hosts were in the lead. But that lead increased in the 38th minute after a sublime bit of awareness and individual skill from Karthi Selvam.

Q3: India 5-3 New Zealand - Russell goes for it again and this time Sreejesh paws it safely over the bar.

Q3: India 5-3 New Zealand - Another PC for New Zealand as the hooter goes off.

Q3: India 5-3 New Zealand - Kane Russell shoots it just wide, but it gets a deflection off an Indian defender on the way - another PC.

Q3: India 5-3 New Zealand - Simon Child wins a PC for New Zealand with 21 seconds to go in the third quarter

Q3: India 5-3 New Zealand - Replay comes in from that Karthi goal. Turns out, the youngster picked up a scoop from near-point blank range which put him one-on-one with the Black Sticks goalkeeper. Makes it all the more impressive from the 21-year-old.

Q3: India 5-3 New Zealand - Rare chance for New Zealand in this quarter. But Simon Child lashes to over the bar.

Q3: India 5-3 New Zealand - GOAL FOR INDIA! As we watch a replay of one chance, Selvam Karthi gets on the end of a pass from deep and neatly slots past Dominic Dixon to make it 5-3 for India. It’s Karthi’s second on the night, so far.

Q3: India 4-3 New Zealand - This game has really opened up now. New Zealand attack followed seconds later by an Indian attack - the defence comes to the rescue in both cases. Just over 10 minutes to go in the third quarter.

Q3: India 4-3 New Zealand - Long corner is the final decision. India loses its referral.

Q3: India 4-3 New Zealand - Another good chance for India, Abhishek’s shot is blocked by a defender. The umpire gives it as a long corner, but Abhishek asks for a referral, claiming it hit a New Zealand foot.

Q3: India 4-3 New Zealand - GOAL FOR INDIA! Just been 33 seconds since pushback. Excellent stickwork from Abhishek on the right, pushes the ball towards Mandeep who pushes it towards goal. Enersen in the New Zealand goal makes the save but Raj kumar Pal is close at hand to tap home. This it the first time in this match that India has led.

We’re off in the second half!

Halftime stats

Vinayakk Mohanarangan: And breathe! A rather breathtaking half of hockey with six goals on the board already. India trailed 1-3, but have levelled things up heading into break thanks to Harmanpreet & Karthi. It’s the sort of half that fans love but coaches hate I imagine.

End of Q2: India 3-3 New Zealand - India ended the half much better than how they started. New Zealand made the most of some sloppy defending from the hosts as they rushed into a 3-1 lead in the first 15 minutes of play. The break though did seem to help the Indians regroup, as they came back strongly. Central to that was Manpreet Singh, who seems he can do no wrong today. He set up Karthi Selvam, who scored impressively to reduce the deficit before Harmanpreet Singh scored his fourth of this Pro League season to equalise.

That’s it for the first half.

Q2: India 3-3 New Zealand - Bit careless from Karthi, failed to control a ball that bobbled and touched his body. No sin there, but then proceeded to move the ball away, prompting the green card.

Q2: India 3-3 New Zealand - Good momentum and buildup for India, until New Zealand’s defence finally gets the ball out of play. Not for long though, the Indians have started to push and put a great degree of pressure on the visitors now.

Q2: India 3-3 New Zealand - GOAL FOR INDIA! And it’s Harmanpreet Singh yet again! This time the India captain blazes a shot straight through the middle to level the scores

Q2: India 2-3 New Zealand - Goalkeeping error, and PC for India

Q2: India 2-3 New Zealand - GOAL FOR INDIA! What a goal from Selvam Karthi! Manpreet Singh intercepts a loose ball in midfield and charges down the left flank, plays a reverse stick pass into the circle to Karthi. The youngster controls and then on the swivel thumps his shot past Enersen. Good start to this quarter by the hosts.

We’re off in Q2!

Kishan Pathak comes on for Sreejesh to start the second quarter

End of Q1: India 1-3 New Zealand - A rather open game, but the defending from the Indian team has been rather poor. More than New Zealand being devastating in attack, it was defensive errors that helped the Kiwis get on the scoresheet three times in the first 15 minutes - nothing Sreejesh could have done to save any of those. The Indians will hope to do much, much better in the second quarter.

Q1: India 1-3 New Zealand - GOAL FOR NEW ZEALAND! Under two minutes to go, and Dylan Thomas left in tons of space on the left flank. He has enough time to look up and search for a pass, and he pushes it forward to the stick of Jake Smith who neatly deflects home.

Vinayakk Mohanarangan: For all the pre-match talk about tightening the defence, India have conceded from two of the softest possible defensive situations. That will (or must) immensely frustrate the management.

Q1: India 1-2 New Zealand - GOAL FOR NEW ZEALAND! Pass comes in and Surender Kumar gets a terrible touch that lifts the ball up, making it possible for a dangerous play call. But Sam Lane controls and lashes the ball past Sreejesh to put the visitors in the lead again.

Q1: India 1-1 New Zealand - GOAL FOR INDIA! “Absolutely rifled into the bottom corner,” says the commentator. Harmanpreet left no chance for Enersen with that powerful drive inside the near post.

Q1: India 0-1 New Zealand - Good low shot by Harmanpreet but strong kick away by George Enersen - so strong the ball bounces up and hits Karthi Selvam in the face. Another PC for India. Harmanpreet fluffs the attempt this time, but a foul earns a third PC.

Q1: India 0-1 New Zealand - Penalty corner for India.

Q1: India 0-1 New Zealand - GOAL FOR NEW ZEALAND! First attack of the match for either team, and first goal. Rather hopeful low cross from Kane Russell from the right that goes, slowly, through three defenders who fail to get a touch. Waiting at the end is Simon Child who controls and makes no mistake to slot past Sreejesh. Not even 2 minutes on the clock yet.

AND WE’RE OFF!

And here's the New Zealand starting XI
Here's the Indian squad

National anthems underway!

Here comes the Indian team

Hello and welcome to Scroll.in’s live coverage of FIH Pro League. Tonight, India take on New Zealand, in the 2022-’23 season’s first mini tournament, at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar.

This is the penultimate match for India in the opening leg of this new season. The hosts at the Kalinga Stadium will hope to get back to winning ways after the 2-3 loss to Spain last weekend. But Harmanpreet Singh and Co will be quietly confident having already beaten the Kiwis in the opening match of the season 4-3.

There will, however, be a keen eye from the management as to how well the Indians convert the chances they create. Defensively too, India conceded far more penalty corners than they won across the two matches. Graham Reid will be hoping his team can bounce back with a better performance all-round. He had called for good intensity across four quarters and the start will be crucial.

Match 1 result: India - New Zealand: 4-3

Player of the Match: Mandeep Singh (India)

Match 2 result: New Zealand - Spain: 2-3

Player of the Match: Enrique Gonzalez (Spain)

Match 3 result: India - Spain: 2-3

Player of the Match: Jordi Bonastre (Spain)

Screenshots in the blog courtesy: FIH Media / Disney+Hotstar