Defending champions Haryana rallied from a goal deficit to beat Bhopal 2-1 in their opening Group A league game in the 2nd Hockey India National Championship for Senior Men in Bangalore on Sunday.
Images from the WSH matches being played on Thursday
The home crowd had plenty of reasons to celebrate as favourites Sher-E-Punjab launched their World Series Hockey (WSH) campaign with a convincing 5-2 win over Chennai Cheetahs.
Defending champions India produced an inspiring display and scored thrice in the second half to beat archrivals Pakistan 4-2 in the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament in Ipoh, Malaysia, on Friday.
India went on a goal-scoring spree and thrashed Japan 7-2 in their first Pool G play-off match for 9 to 16 places in the men's Junior Hockey World Cup in Singapore on Sunday.
Veteran drag-flicker Sandeep Singh scored twice as Jaypee Punjab Warriors drubbed debutants Kalinga Lancers 7-3 in a high-scoring Hockey India League match in Bhubaneshwar.
India produced a disappointing performance to lose to arch-rivals Pakistan 0-1 in a lacklustre summit clash of men's hockey at the 12th South Asian Games in Guwahati on Friday.
Pakistan's retired hockey international Rehan Butt, who was appointed coach of the national team taking part in the 12th South Asian Games, turned out as a player in the team's first two matches, including Monday's victory over hosts India.
India might have lost to Pakistan in the summit clash of men's hockey in the 12th South Asian Games but captain Mandeep Antil on Saturday sought to take the positives from the performance of his players, saying they have done well given the inexperience of the team. With the country's top players taking part in the ongoing Hockey India League, India fielded an inexperienced team mostly consisting of junior players and they failed to click as a unit in the SAG. India settled for the silver medal after losing twice to arch-rivals Pakistan, including in the final 0-1 in Guwahati on Friday night. India had just two senior players who had played some international matches in Antil himself and veteran Gurbaj Singh. Even Antil has played just 20-odd international matches while Gurbaj has donned India colours in more than 200 games. Pakistan had at least six players who played in the London Olympics. Antil said he was disappointed to have lost to Pakistan in the final, which he felt was a close match. "Any loss to Pakistan at any level is a disappointment. We wanted to win the gold but we could not do it. We played better (than the group match which also India lost 1-2) and it was a close match but we lost again," Antil told PTI.
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