Tokyo Olympics: Indian men’s hockey team beat Japan 5-3 in their last Pool A game
The Indian men’s national hockey team beat host country Japan 5-3 in the final match of Group A at the Olympic Games in Tokyo on Friday on the North Field of the Oi Hockey Stadium.
The Indian took the early lead into the game after Harmanpreet Singh converted a brilliant penalty corner in the 13th minute to take a slender lead of 1-0 by the end of quarter 1. This is was Harmanpreet’s fourth goal in the campaign. Two minutes into quarter 2, Simranjeet went inside the Japanese circle to lend a brilliant pass to Gurjant, who doubled the lead for the men in blue. Kenta Tanaka of Japan took advantage of the Indian defensive lapse and deliver a fine strike past Sreejesh to close the gap at 2-1 in half time.
A minute into the second half, Watanabe delivered a perfect stroke to equalise at 2-2 for the hosts. Just three minutes, later Samsher Singh found the mouth of the goal and struck to give India a lead again of 3-2 till the 3rd quarter. In the fifth quarter, India sealed two more goals – one by Nilakanta and another by Gurjant, which led the country to draw in the second position from Pool A, behind Australia. Murata scored for Japan in the dying minutes.
