Indian men fight back to beat Ireland 3-1

BHUBANESWAR: The Indian men's hockey team was pushed to the wall by Ireland in the first quarter, but they came back strong to grab a 3-1 win in the FIH Pro League at Kalinga Stadium here on Friday.After Ireland took the lead in the 8th minute through Jeremy Duncan, it was Mandeep Singh who scored a stunner in the 22nd minute after a run down the right flank. They upped the tempo after the change of ends and scored two more and to the delight of the fans and coach Craig Fulton, both were from penalty corners.The first came in the dying seconds of the third quarter when India won their fifth PC of the match. Harmanpreet Singh blasted the ball straight towards Ireland goalkeeper Jamie Carr. He kept out the shot, but Jarmanpreet Singh slammed the rebound into the net from close range to make it 2-1 for India.Even in the fourth quarter, the hosts did not take their foot off the gas and Gurjant Singh almost scored India's third of the night. But Carr, who made some brilliant saves throughout the night, was able to deny him again.His walls were breached again with two minutes left in the match when India won their sixth PC. This time Harmanpreet played the ball behind his back to Rajinder Singh and he pushed it towards the goal where Sukhjeet Singh got a touch to it and scored.It was the first time the hosts scored from the PCs in the tournament and coach Fulton was more than pleased with it."I think we're getting better in every game. And there are different challenges from different teams. So, after the fifth game, we scored two penalty corners and that makes a big difference. So, if we get a balance of field goals and penalty corners, then it can help," said the coach.Meanwhile, in the first match of the day the Netherlands women's team handed England a 5-1 rout to begin their tournament in a resounding fashion.