Hockey: After defeating Netherlands, India is in the semi-finals of Junior World Cup Hockey, will now face Germany
The Indian team made a brilliant comeback after falling behind by two goals and entered the semi-finals by defeating a strong team like Netherlands 4-3 in the Junior Hockey World Cup. The Indian team will play Germany in the semi-finals on Thursday. The quarter-final match between India and Netherlands, ranked third and fourth in the world rankings, was quite exciting. The Dutch team was leading 2-0 till half-time but after that India made a comeback and scored four goals in the second half.
Timo Boers (5th minute), Pepin van der Heyden (16th minute) and Olivier Hortensius (44th minute) scored for Netherlands, while for India, Aditya Lalage (34th minute), Arijit Singh Hundal (36th minute), Anand Kushwaha ( 52nd minute) and captain Uttam Singh (57th minute) scored the goals.
India made a great comeback in the match
The Netherlands team started aggressively from the first quarter and scored a penalty corner, which Boers converted into a goal. In the very first minute of the second quarter, Van der Heyden converted the second penalty corner to give the team a 2-0 lead which remained till half-time. India made a brilliant comeback in the third quarter, which was led by Arijit Singh. He assisted Lalage’s goal in the 34th minute and converted the penalty stroke two minutes later to level the score at 2-2. The Dutch team again took the lead in the third quarter when Olivier converted a penalty corner.
In the last ten minutes, the Indian team displayed excellent hockey and scored two goals. Kushwaha equalized the score by scoring a goal on the rebound in the 52nd minute. India got an important penalty corner in the 57th minute, on which captain Uttam Singh made no mistake in scoring the goal.
Excellent performance by the defensive line in the last quarter
In the last two minutes, the Dutch team tried their best to score an equalizing goal but the Indian defense remained as firm as a rock. In the last quarter, Rohit saved six consecutive penalty corners and was adjudged Player of the Match for this brilliant performance.
