India edge past Pakistan 4-3 in FIH Pro League

The Indian men's hockey team maintained their winning momentum with a hard fought 4-3 win over Pakistan in their FIH Pro League match at London's Lee Valley Hockey and Tennis Centre on Tuesday.

Harmanpreet Singh and co. were not at their best but did enough thanks to goals from Abhishek, Nilakanta Sharma, Sukhjeet Singh and Rajinder Singh. For Pakistan, Ahmad Nadeem, Abu Mahmood and Moin Shakeel scored the goals.

India were expected to start strong but it was the other way round as Pakistan took the lead after they kept a penalty corner chance in motion with Nadeem applying the finishing touches from a close range in the eighth minute.

India then pushed hard and earned multiple penalty corners, however their captain Harmanpreet struggled to convert his chances. The equaliser came in the second quarter when Abhishek came up with a fine finish from the centre of the circle. Up until then, Pakistan goalkeeper Ali Raza pulled multiple saves to frustrate the Indians.

Two minutes later, Harmanpreet's dragflick was blocked again but Nilkanta took control of the rebound and smashed it past the Pakistan keeper to make it 2-1.

The heat in London was taking a toll on Indian players as they struggled to play at full intensity while Pakistan were kept probing with their counter attacks.

It was India who doubled with Sukhjeet coming up with a brilliant diving shot in the 40th minute. In the final quarter, Rajinder took a chance at penalty corner conversion and he made sure he scored India's fourth goal of the match.

Pakistan reduced the deficit in the 53rd minute after Mahmood's nifty dragflick beat Suraj Karkera through the legs and in the last minute, Shakeel converted from a penalty corner rebound to ensure they ended the match 3-4.

It was a much better performance from Pakistan who have lost all their matches in the league and had conceded 22 goals in their last four matches previous to this one.

India will look back on missing out on penalty corner conversions and will seek improvements when they face England next on June 25.

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