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Indian skipper Harmanpreet Singh celebrates his goal with teammates in the Pool-B games against Ireland (File Photo: Internet)
Indian skipper Harmanpreet Singh’s golden run of form with his ‘drag flicks’ continued against Ireland in the third match of the team’s campaign in the ongoing Paris Olympics 2024. The leader again played a decisive role in the team’s clean-sheet victory by 2-0 against Ireland in a Pool B match at the Yves-du-Manoir Stadium. With this win, the men in blue have also continued their unbeaten run in the men’s hockey competition in the current Olympics.
The eight-time gold medalist, India started dominating the less experienced Ireland from the first quarter of the game. The first success for India came in the 11th minute of the first quarter when they got a penalty stroke. None other than the skipper Harmanpreet Singh took the stroke.
The 28-year-old didn’t miss the chance and smashed it in the left corner of the Irish Goalkeeper David Harte to score the first goal for India. Singh’s men maintained this ‘1-0 lead till the end of the first quarter and became more confident in the second quarter.
Harmanpreet Singh tops the chart of goal-scorers in the Paris Olympics 2024
It was the 18th minute of the match and only the 3rd minute of the second quarter when India were awarded a penalty corner. Harmanpreet missed the first chance, followed by the re-penalty corner and the same result again. In a fortunate line of events for India and their skipper, they got another re-penalty corner within a few seconds. At that moment, Harmanpreet probably took this turnaround on his ‘drag-flick’ ego and he didn’t miss the chance this time, dodging the experience of David Harte in the latter's right corner to score the second goal for India.
With his second goal, the Indian skipper Harmanpreet Singh also became the leading goal-scorer in the ongoing Paris Olympics 2024, with 4 individual goals to his name.
Sreejesh-led Indian defence avoids the late bruises to India’s scoreline
Furthermore, what happened later in the third and fourth quarter of the game was the action replay of Indian mistakes in the last two matches. It was their issue with ‘conceding the penalty’ corners. The Tokyo 2020 Bronze medalists conceded 10 penalty corners against Ireland in this game.
Thanks to the PR Sreejesh-led defence, who saved all of these conceded penalty corners for India and kept the scoreline clean by 2-0. However, the Indian fans had their ‘hearts in their mouths’ when India conceded a penalty corner in the last minute of the match. Fortunately, it was saved by the excellence of PR Sreejesh and Amit Rohidas to avoid a goal for Ireland.
Eventually, the score at the time of the last whistle ended up as 2-0 in India’s favour, with the boys in blue topping the Pool B points table with 7 points. They have now two wins and a draw in the three games they have played.