It took an inspired performance from the Uttar Pradesh Wizards to finally stop the Delhi Waveriders juggernaut from rolling as they thrashed the home team 4-1 in their final round-robin match of the Hockey India League at the floodlit Major Dhyan Chand Stadium in New Delhi.
Mandeep Singh struck twice to help Ranchi Rhinos beat Uttar Pradesh Wizards 3-1 in a Hockey India League match that witnessed four late goals on Saturday.
Uttar Pradesh Wizards struck twice in the second half to score a 2-0 victory over Ranchi Rhinos in a round-robin league match of the Hockey India League in Lucknow on Sunday.
Hosts The Netherlands beat Germany by a solitary goal to complicate the Olympic champions' chances of making it to the last four of the Men's World Cup Hockey.
India blanked New Zealand 2-0 to start their campaign in the four-nation Punjab Gold Cup hockey tournament on a winning note. In the second match of the day, Holland defeated World and Olympic champions Germany by an identical margin.
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.
India conceded a goal in the dying minutes and lost to European champions The Netherlands 1-2 in the final of the Punjab Gold Cup hockey tournament in Chandigarh on Monday evening. The tournament's top-scorer Jeroen Hertzberger converted a penalty-corner in the 66th minute to break Indian hearts, at the packed Sector 42 hockey stadium. Earlier, New Zealand beat Germany 3-2 to take third place.
India are now atop the leaderboard with five points from two games, but the Manpreet Singh-led side conceded a point to the Netherlands after drawing (during the regulation time) the second match of the contest on Sunday.
Belgium won a tense penalty shootout 3-2 against three-times champions Netherlands to win their first men's hockey World Cup title.
Dominating the proceedings, Netherlands scored five field goals through Lars Balk (16th minute), Robert Kemperman (20th), Thijs van Dam (40th, 58th) and Thierry Brinkman (41st) to register the comfortable win at the Kalinga Stadium.
A well-oiled Indian unit had raised the hopes of making the semi-finals for the first time since 1975 but the Dutch side broke a million hearts by coming from behind to knock out the hosts 2-1 in the last-eight clash.
The two sides have shared the spoils since 2013. India and Netherlands have faced each other nine times since 2013, winning four apiece while one game finished in a draw.
Olympic bronze medallist Germany defeated Malaysia 5-3 in a keenly-contested match
Four-time champions Pakistan produced a lion-hearted performance before going down 0-1 to Olympic bronze medallist Germany in their opening Pool D match of the 2018 Hockey World Cup.
The Netherlands will face underdogs New Zealand in the summit clash of the Hero Hockey World league Final on Saturday after the two teams eked out hard-fought wins over world champions Australia and England at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium.
Olympic silver medallist Belgium created history by making their maiden appearance in the men's hockey World Cup summit clash, thrashing England 6-0 in a lopsided first semi-final.
An inspired Pakistan put their disappointing showing in the pool matches behind to stun World Cup and Olympics silver medallists the Netherlands 4-2 and reach the semi-finals of the Hero Champions Trophy hockey tournament, in Bhubaneswar, on Thursday.
Pakistan avenged their Asian Games final loss when they beat India 4-3 in Bhubaneswar on Saturday to enter the Champions Trophy hockey final.