NEW DELHI: Indian men's hockey team registered a stunning 4-3 victory against higher-ranked
Netherlands
at Waalwijk on Sunday, their first win in three games in their tour of Europe. They began the European tour on wrong note, losing both their matches against fifth-ranked Belgium.
Sixth-ranked India came from a goal down to beat world No. 4 Netherlands in a seven-goal thriller. Skipper
Manpreet Singh was the star for the visitors with two fine goals.
The hosts took an early lead in Q1 through a penalty stroke, which was scored by Mink van der Weerden. India then controlled the game in the second quarter and
Varun Kumar scored the equaliser with a brilliant drag-flick before Manpreet struck a field goal to give the visitors 2-1 lead at half-time.
Manpreet scored again in the third quarter to extend India's lead to 3-1, which was soon turned into 4-1 with a goal by
Harjeet Singh
.
In the final quarter, Netherlands increased the tempo and started searching for the goals.
Bob de Voogd
came up with two stunning goals to reduce the deficit to 3-4, but India managed to hold on to the slender lead and registered a fine win.
India will face the same opponents, Netherlands, in their fourth match of the tour on Monday at 23:30 IST.