Tokyo Olympics: Indian men's hockey team beat New Zealand 3-2 in opening game

The Indian men's hockey team, on Saturday, defeated New Zealand during its opening match at the Tokyo Olympics. The Manpreet Singh-led side beat the Kiwis 3-2, courtesy of goals from Rupinder Pal Singh (1) and Harmanpreet Singh (2). The match started on a sour note for India as New Zealand scored an early goal to take a 1-0 lead in the game. However, India bounced back quickly as Rupinder Pal scored an equalizer after winning a penalty corner. 

India secured a lead in the second quarter after Rupinder Pal passed a penalty corner to Harmanpreet Singh, who tricked New Zealand players to send the ball past Kiwi goalie Leon Hayward. Before the second goal, India's Vivek Sagar Prasad had missed a very good chance of scoring one against New Zealand as he couldn't get past their defence. India took the lead 3-1 after another penalty-corner helped Harmanpreet score his second consecutive goal. 

In the 36th minute, moments after India scored the third goal, Harmanpreet almost registered an Olympics hat-trick with a penalty-corner shot that was saved by Hayward. Meanwhile, New Zealand narrowed India's lead minutes before the end of the third quarter as Stephen Jenness scored one for the Kiwis following an amazing pass from Nick Wilson. Wilson breached the Indian defence before passing the ball to Jenness, who scored the goal to make the scoreboard read 3-2. 

New Zealand tried to score a couple of goals in the final minutes of the match but Indian defence and goalie- PR Sreejesh, stood strong in front of the world number eighth-ranked team. India and New Zealand are both parts of Group A at the Tokyo Olympics along with Australia, Argentina, Spain, and Japan (Host). Australia and Japan also played their opening match on Saturday, where the world number one ranked side defeated the hosts 5-3.

India and New Zealand's playing XI

India XI: PR Sreejesh (GK), Rupinder Pal Singh, Surender Kumar, Harmanpreet Singh, Amit Rohidas, Manpreet Singh (C), Hardik Singh, Nilakanta Sharma, Dilpreet Singh, Mandeep Singh, Shamser Singh.

COACH - Graham Reid.

New Zealand XI: Leon Hayward (G), Dane Lett, Nic Woods, Kane Russell, Blair Tarrant (C), Shea McAleese, Nick Ross, Hugo Inglis, Sam Lane, Stephen Jenness, Nick Wilson.

COACH - Darren Smith.

Image: HockeyIndia/Twitter