Dominant India crush Argentina 3-0 to jump to 4th spot in FIH Pro League
Buenos Aires: The Indian men's hockey team registered a comprehensive 3-0 win over reigning Olympic champions Argentina in the second match of the FIH Pro League here to jump to the fourth spot in the points table.
Goals from Harmanpreet Singh (11th minute), Lalit Upadhyay (25th) and Mandeep Singh (58th) on Sunday gave the visitors a deserved triumph over Los Leones, adding three more points to the two they had claimed against the hosts in Saturday's shoot-out, which earned them a bonus point.
By virtue of this win, India, with 15 points from eight games, climbed up to fourth place in the FIH Hockey Pro League standings, moving one point ahead of Australia having played the same number of games.
India, Argentina and Australia will play against each other at the forthcoming Olympic Games, where they have been drawn in Pool A alongside Spain, New Zealand and home favourites Japan.
Argentina sit sixth in the FIH Hockey Pro League standings, with 11 points from 12 games.
Argentina started brightly and would have been ahead had it not been for some excellent saves from India goalkeeper Krishan Bahadur Pathak, who twice denied Martin Ferreiro.
Harmanpreet then converted India's first penalty corner of the game in the 11th minute.
Lalit doubled India's lead when he showed lightning quick reactions in the second quarter, pouncing on a save from Argentina custodian Juan Vivaldi to slot home. The strike gave the visitors a deserved reward after a lengthy period of probing possession.
The result was confirmed two minutes from the final hooter when Mandeep fired home from close range, losing his footing but keeping his composure to guide an backhand effort into the net.
"I think we defended well," said India goalkeeper Pathak, who was named Player of the Match.
"They are good in defence but we created a lot of chances. We scored the goals, so that is good for us. We have to work on a lot of things, in defence, in midfield also.
"We have to learn from this match. Today we did a lot of good things, but we still have to work (to do)."
India will next travel to Great Britain for the two-leg tie on May 8 and 9.
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Earth observation mission could not be accomplished due to 3rd stage pressure issue: ISRO chief
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Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh) (PTI): ISRO's 101st mission from here, an earth observation satellite onboard the agency's trusted PSLV rocket, could not be accomplished on Sunday following a pressure issue in the third stage of the launch vehicle, the space agency said.
Although the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) made a textbook lift-off at the prefixed time of 5.59 am, the mission objectives, however could not be achieved.
"Today we targeted the 101st launch from Sriharikota, the PSLV-C61 EOS-09 mission. The PSLV is a four-stage vehicle and up to the second stage, the performance was normal. The third stage motor started perfectly but during the functioning of the third stage we are seeing an observation and the mission could not be accomplished," Narayanan said.
The third stage is a solid motor system.
"...and the motor pressure--there was a fall in the chamber pressure of the motor case and the mission could not be accomplished. We are studying the entire performance, we shall come back at the earliest," Narayanan said post the unsuccessful launch.
EOS-09 is a repeat satellite similar to EOS-04 launched in 2022 that has been designed with the mission objective to ensure remote sensing data for the user community engaged in operational applications and to improve the frequency of observation.
The mission's payload, a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) which is inside the satellite is capable of providing images for various earth observation applications under all-weather conditions, day and night.
This all-weather, round-the-clock imaging is vital for applications ranging from agriculture and forestry monitoring to disaster management, urban planning and national security.
The mission was aimed to be a debris-free one.
According to scientists, a sufficient amount of the fuel had been reserved for de-orbiting the satellite after its effective mission life by lowering it to an orbit that ensures its decay within two years, towards ensuring a debris-free mission.
