India were held to a 2-2 draw by world No 3 Belgium in what turned out to be a scintillating game at the 2018 Men’s Hockey World Cup in Bhubaneswar on Sunday.
The hosts now continue to remain atop Pool C with four points (level with Belgium) and a goal difference of five. India’s match against Canada on Saturday will determine their direct qualification for the quarter-finals.
Alexander Hendrickx (8’) and Simon Gougnard (56’) scored for Belgium, while Harmanpreet Singh (39’) and Simranjeet Singh (47’) were on target for India.
Belgium, who have a 14-13 head-to-head superiority over India when it comes to wins, made an aggressive start. For the first five minutes, they seldom let India enter their half. Several times they were in India’s circle and earned a back-to-back penalty corners from the pressure they applied. PR Sreejesh, who didn’t have much to do in the last game against South Africa until the last quarter, was yelling, rushing and blocking the ball within the first five minutes on Sunday.
In the eighth minute, however, he couldn’t stop Alexander Hendrickx’s drag-flick from rocketing between his legs, into the net off Belgium’s third penalty corner.
Buoyed by the goal, Belgium came close to scoring again as the Indian defence looked hurried, struggling to stop the rushing Red Lions. To make matters worse, Mandeep Singh missed deflecting a ball into the net towards the end of the first quarter.
The quarter-time break didn’t alter the flow of the game. Belgians only seemed to be improving. They breached India’s circle on four occasions and had one more shot at goal, which Sreejesh saved.
Dilpreet Singh, in this phase of the game, attempted to beat the Vanasch with pace. But he couldn’t find an angle that would have made it difficult for the Belgian ‘keeper.
After the half-time break, however, India played different, played better. Inspired by a terrific shift from captain Manpreet Singh, they made more aerial passes to get to the Belgian circle and were trapping the ball better. The constant forays into the opponent’s circle earned them back-to-back penalty corners.
Varun Kumar’s low drag-flick, then, got them a penalty stroke, which Harmanpreet Singh converted without fuss.
Simranjeet Singh, in the 45th minute, from the goalmouth, deflected a superb pass from Kothajit Singh into the net to give India a one-goal lead.
India were on course for their second straight win till Simon Gougnard scored the game’s final goal, four minutes before the finish.
Group toppers proceed directly to the quarter-finals and India are now nicely poised to achieve that.