Tamil Nadu Dragons edged past Hyderabad Toofans 4-3 in a shootout after the two teams were locked at 2-2 at the end of regulation time in the Men's Hockey India League. The win propelled Tamil Nadu Dragons to the top of the eight-team standings with 17 points from eight games.
Hyderabad Toofans registered a commanding 5-1 win over Vedanta Kalinga Lancers to move to second spot.
Gonzalo Peillat scored a brace as Hyderabad Toofans ended Tamil Nadu Dragons unbeaten run with a 4-0 win in the men's Hockey India League in Ranchi on Saturday.
The 19-year-old won the accolade ahead of Argentina's Maico Casella and Blake Govers of Australia, who finished second and third respectively.
Jacob Anderson scored the fastest goal in the Hockey India League history, but it went in vain as the Hyderabad Toofans lost to Team Gonasika in the shootout.
Indian men beat Argentina 5-4 in shootout of FIH Pro League
The victory enabled the eight-time Olympic champions consolidated their position in second place of Pool A, with three wins and a loss out from four games, behind Australia.
Captain Harmanpreet Singh scored a late equaliser to salvage a hard-fought 1-1 draw against Argentina.
Veteran captain Lee Nam Yong, 39, was also among the scorers as he struck the equalising goal in the 56th minute while Kim Sunghyun (18th) and Jeong Junwoo (20th) scored the other goals for the South Koreans in the regulation time.
Spain upset last year's bronze medallist Netherlands 2-1 in a classification match on Saturday to set up a clash against Argentina in the fifth-sixth place play-off of the men's Junior Hockey World Cup, in Lucknow on Saturday.
Images from the opening day's action in the FIH men's Hockey World Cup in Odisha.
India's junior men's hockey team came back strongly in the ongoing 5th Sultan of Johor Cup as they defeated Argentina 3-2 in the third league match in Johor Bahru on Wednesday.
The Kookaburras had pulled ahead twice in the game, thanks to goals by Tom Wickham, but the Netherlands managed to equalise through goals by Mink van der Weerden and Jeroen Hertzberger.
They looked on course to clinch all three points on offer but Govers Blake scored in the dying minutes for Australia as the two sides split points.
Sloppy defending cost India dearly as Sam Ward scored a brace for England to hand the home team a heart-breaking 2-3 defeat in a hard-fought Pool B match of the Hockey World League (HWL) Final, in Bhubaneswar, on Saturday.
'I play in the present without thinking about the buzz in the background,' says Vivek Sagar Prasad, who has just won the FIH Rising Star of the Year award.
The hosts will face Australia in the semi-final on Friday.
Minnows Austria continued to impress in the ongoing men's Junior Hockey World Cup as they spanked declining Asian powerhouse Korea 5-2 in Lucknow on Saturday to remain in contention for a surprise quarter-final berth from Pool A in the 16-team tournament.
