Akashdeep Singh, Ramandeep Singh and Nikkin Thimmiah scored a goal apiece as Indian men’s hockey team started their tour of New Zealand with a convincing 3-1 victory, here on Friday.
After the ever-consistent PR Sreejesh thwarted New Zealand A’s <g data-gr-id="17">back-to back</g> penalty corners, India hit on <g data-gr-id="16">counter</g> in the third minute. Ramandeep dribbled past a couple of opposition players feeding Akashdeep, who coolly slotted it home to give his team 1-0 lead. In the 20th minute, it was Ramandeep’s turn to put his name up in the scorers’ list with a spectacular field goal as he left the host defence in complete tatters. Within another six minutes, it was <g data-gr-id="18">Nikkin</g> did spadework past the ‘Black Sticks’ defenders after receiving a pass from Gurjinder Singh as he successfully struck to make it 3-0.
New Zealand did pull one back in the third quarter as they successfully converted a penalty corner in the 36th minute. The score at the end of the third quarter was 3-1. In the fourth quarter, both the teams pushed themselves harder to score more goals with forwards Ramandeep, Akashdeep and <g data-gr-id="14">Nikkin</g> keeping the New Zealand defenders busy and played the game in opponent’s half.