Indian men’s team enters final in FIH Hockey 5s, faces Poland in summit clash

The Indian men’s team stormed into the final of the inaugural FIH Hockey 5s tournament with an unbeaten record after dominating wins over Malaysia and Poland here on Sunday.

India first outplayed Malaysia 7-3, pumping in four goals in the second half in a stunning show before beating Poland 6-2 in the second match of the day.

The Graham Reid-coached side topped the five-team standings after the round-robin league stage with 10 points from three wins and one draw. India had beaten hosts Switzerland 4-3 and drawn with arch-rivals Pakistan 2-2 on Saturday.

India will face Poland — who finished second with six points — again in the final later in the day. Pakistan would have qualified for the final and faced India had they won against Malaysia in their final league match but the match ended 5-5 draw. Pakistan finished third with five points.

Raheel Mohammed continued his goal-scoring spree as he fired in three goals against Malaysia and then struck twice against Poland to play a pivotal role in India booking a summit clash berth.

He had also found the target thrice on Saturday — twice against Switzerland and once against Pakistan. He has accumulated eight goals from four matches to lead the tournament’s goal-scoring chart.

Besides Raheel’s three strikes in the eighth, 14th and 18th minutes, Gursahibjit Singh (first and 17th) and Sanjay (10th and 12th) were the other Indian scorers against Malaysia who scored through Rosdi Firadus (fourth and 13th) and captain Noor Nabil (ninth).

The Indians led 3-2 at the half time in the 20-minute match.

India completely dominated the match against Poland, surging to a 5-0 lead at half time through goals from Sanjay (2nd), Raheel (4th and 9th), Gursahibjit Singh (7th) and Mandeep Mor (10th).

Moirangthem Rabichandra (15th) added one goal for India in the second session while Arzynski Gracjan (13th) and captain Kurowski Jacek (16th) reduced the margin for Poland.