India’s Rupinder Pal Singh (left) celebrates with Talwinder Singh after scoring the first goal against New Zealand during the play-off of the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in Ipoh on Saturday. Pic/AP, PTI
Ipoh: India came good, a day late, but it was good enough to pick up the bronze medal as they brushed aside New Zealand 4-0 in Ipoh at the Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey tournament on Saturday.
India, still hurting after the 0-1 defeat to hosts Malaysia which deprived them of playing the final against Australia, decided to repair some of the damage done to their reputation.
They dismantled the Kiwis, earlier having beaten them in the league stage 3-0, with four good goals and hardly had to worry about New Zealand trying to stage a comeback into the game.
India blew away New Zealand with a brace from Rupinder Pal Singh and claimed their seventh bronze medal. Rupinder came back into form after having missed crucial flicks against Malaysia, a match India would want to forget.
Rupinder scored off the 1st and 4th penalty corners as India led 2-0. Sunil also came onto the score sheets for the first time in the tournament with a deft deflection of a Mandeep Singh pass.
At 3-0, there were no comebacks for NZ. And then Talwinder Singh decided to join the party with a lovely goal. Pride was at stake and India came good.
Indian coach, Roelant Oltmans, seemed satisfied.
“Our defence was very good today, he said. “We did not give away any penalty corner to New Zealand. But there are lessons we learnt and one of them, according to our statistics, is that we should have scored more goals in this tournament.”
Later, Great Britain beat World Champions Australia 4-3 to lift the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup.