Punjab Gold Hockey Cup: Germany Mauls India By 4-2

Punjab Gold Hockey Cup: Germany Mauls India By 4-2In a crucial tie, world champions Germany defeated India 4-2 to keep themselves in reckoning in the crucial Punjab Gold Cup Hockey Tournament at the Sector 42 hockey stadium. For Germans, Jan Philipp Rabente (14th minute), Lim Kevin (21st), Moritz Furste (34th) and skipper Tobias Hauke (38th) scored, whereas from India Tushar Khandekar (12th) and skipper Sandeep Singh (64th) found the goals.

In its earlier matches, Germany looked quite low in spirits, but on Friday they came back strongly defeating the hosts by a comfortable margin. 

In a do-or-die match, the Germans proved that how dodgy they could be.

The Germans completely dominated the first half of the match. They outclassed Indians in every department of the game which made the home team looked completely out of sorts. Moreover, Indians lacked imagination in the first half. It was Tushar Khandekar who scored the first goal, bringing a huge relief to the Indians. Germany took charge after that. They did not take long to restore parity when Jan Philipp Rabente sounded the board from a close range. Within few minutes, Germans made it 2-1 when Lim Kevin was bang on target.

Just before the end of the first half, Germans forced a penalty corner, which was converted into another goal.

Immediately after the first half, Germany skipper Tobias Haunke almost made the victory secure by forging ahead by 4-1.

After this, Rajpal retrieved the ball and passed it to Vikram Pillay, who entered the danger area to pass it on to Shivender. However, Shivender failed to provide finishing touches. Within a few minutes from this unsuccessful attempt, India forced their second penalty corner. This time Sandeep was right on target (4-2).

With time running out, Indian players tried their best, but failed to make any mark at the end of the game. Though both Prabhjot Singh and Sunil V made alone attempts towards the opponent goalpost but lack of back-up support saw the moves fizzle out.