Hockey World Cup 2018: Spirited India play out 2-2 draw against Belgium
Bhubaneswar, Dec 2: Hosts India produced a spirited effort to eke out a 2-2 draw against Olympic silver medallists Belgium in an evenly-contested Pool C match of the men's hockey World Cup here on Sunday.
Pegged back by Alexander Hendricks' goal in the eighth minute, India made a valiant comeback after the change of ends, scoring two goals in the third and fourth quarter through Harmanpreet Singh (39th) and Simranjeet Singh (47th) to take the lead.
But the hosts defence faltered in the final minutes and conceded a late goal when Simon Gougnard scored in the 56th minute to draw level.
The draw, however, enabled world no. 5 India to take the top spot in Pool C ahead of Belgium on goal difference. Both teams have a win and a draw from two outings.
India had earlier blanked South Africa 5-0 in their opener, while world no. 3 Belgium pulled off a close 2-1 win over Canada.
India will play Canada in their last pool match on December 8, while Belgium will be up against South Africa on the same day.
Contrary to their last match, the Indians completely looked out of sorts in the opening two quarters against Belgium.
The hosts lacked co-ordination in the midfield and that gave them hardly any scoring opportunities.
The Indians were slow to get off the blocks as the Red Lions dominated the proceedings in the first two quarters, threatening the hosts defence on a number of occasions.
Belgium got their first scoring opportunity in the second minute in the form of back-to-back penalty corners but failed to get past the Indian defence.
Another penalty corner in the eighth minute resulted in Belgium's first goal through Hendricks, who sounded the board with a ground flick in between the legs of Indian custodian P R Sreejesh.
Seconds from the first quarter, India had their first real scoring chance when Mandeep deflected wide a Dilpreet Singh layover from Birendra Lakra's inch-perfect pass from the midfield.
Five minutes into the second quarter, Dilpreet Singh shot wide from top right after being fed by skipper Manpreet Singh.
Two minutes from half time, Tom Boon came tantalisingly close to doubling Belgium's lead when his neat deflection struck the post and went out.
But after the change of ends, the Indians changed gears and looked a completely different side.
The home team looked more organised and their mid-field finally started to create opportunities.
Three minutes into the third quarter, Dilpreet was denied by Belgium goalkeeper Vincent Van Asch from close range after being fed by Simranjeet.
Two minutes later India earned their first penalty corner and it took a gem of save from Vanasch to keep Harmanpreet Singh's powerful high flick out of the target.
Minutes later, Belgium had a chance but an alert Sreejesh denied Cedric Charlier.
India's relentless pressure earned them back-to-back penalty corners in the 39th minute, the second of which resulted in a penalty stroke which was ably converted by Harmanpreet to drew parity for the hosts.
Two minutes into the fourth and final quarter, Simranjeet scored his third goal of the tournament by tapping in from close range after being set up by Kothajit Singh's fine stick work from the left flank to hand India the lead.
Thereafter, the game witnessed end-to-end attacking stuff with both the teams pressing hard in search of the decisive goal.
Belgium withdrew their goal keeper for an extra player with little less than five minutes from the hooter and their move struck gold when Gougnard scored with a slapshot in between Sreejesh's legs late into the game.
The Indians made a few impressive moves in the remaining few minutes but Belgium defended stoutly despite the absence of their goalkeeper to share the spoils.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Confident we are going to win Kerala: Shashi Tharoor
New Delhi (PTI): Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday expressed confidence in the victory of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala, saying the Congress-led alliance will win more than 75 seats out of the total 140 in the state.
Tharoor, who hails from Kerala, said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls, most of which predicted a victory for the UDF that has been out of power for 10 years in the state.
"We have been on the ground. I have campaigned in 59 constituencies across 12 districts out of 14. I was very confident we are going to win.
"Everything that I have picked up from not just my party colleagues and workers but also from other observers, media and others have always convinced me that we were going to score a comfortable win of above 75 seats. And all the (exit) polls have confirmed the same thing," he told reporters here.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls but in general he was not a big fan of exit polls in India.
"Because ours is not purely a homogenous society. We have to take into account gender issue, caste issue, class issue, regional disparities. You never get a convincingly large enough sample to give an accurate poll and now there is the additional complication that we have heard about in West Bengal this year that many people are unwilling to answer the questions of the pollsters," he said.
The Congress leader said normally, it used to be below 10 per cent that people said that they would not answer.
"Even if you are a reputable exit pollster, in Bengal, one polling company has said 60 per cent of people refused to answer. So, what is the worth of a poll where 60 per cent of your respondents have not answered," he said.
Several exit polls on Wednesday predicted a comeback by the Congress-led UDF in Kerala after 10 years, dethroning the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF).
Polling for the 140-member Kerala assembly was held on April 9. Results of assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Puducherry, besides Kerala, will be announced on May 4.
