VALENCIA:
India's junior men's hockey team
beat the hosts Spain 3-1 in their match at the 4-Nations Invitational tournament on Thursday evening.
The result saw India top of the table after the round-robin stages. For India,
Parvinder Singh (5th min) opened the scoring while
Nilakanta Sharma
(30th min) and
Armaan Qureshi
(41st min) added to the tally.
India were the dominant team from the start and were applying pressure and pushing the hosts on the defensive from the starting hooter.
They won their first penalty corner in the 5th minute and Parvinder Singh's conversion gave them a 1-0 lead. Spain clawed their way back with a short corner conversion of their own in the 16th minute, by
Gerard Garcia
.
India kept their attacking intent alive though and kept on the offensive throughout the half. They won a host of penalty corners midway through the half but
Alberto Carnicer
in Spain's goal denied them the lead.
Just before halftime though Nilakanta Sharma put them in the lead with a superbly taken goal in the 30th minute.
Spain came out of half-time more organised at the back and were soon making incursions into the Indian defence right at the start of the second half.
A swift counter attack by India in the 41st minute, finished by Armaan Qureshi, effectively killed off the game though, as India held on for a 3-1 win.