The Indian men's hockey team blanked lower-ranked Ireland 4-0 to end their home leg of the FIH Pro League campaign on a winning note here on Sunday.
Nilakanta Sharma (14th minute), Akashdeep Singh (15th), Gurjant Singh (38th) and Jugraj Singh (60th) were the goal scorers. Nilakanta and Jugraj got their goals from penalty corners while Akashdeep and Gurjant struck through field efforts.
India dominated the match and led 2-0 half time. The Indian team is currently placed at the third spot with 15 points from eight matches, with five wins (three outright and two shootout) and three losses (one outright and two shootout).
The Netherlands and Australia are above India with 26 and 20 points respectively. The Harmanpreet Singh-led side will continue their FIH Pro League campaign in the European leg in May-June.
India missed out on beating Australia in a close contest:
India's previous match against Australia saw them go down in a penalty shootout after it ended 2-2 in full time. In fact, the hosts had notably failed to convert the goal advantage on a couple of occasions. Harmanpreet Singh and Amit Rohidas were successfully in converting two penalty corners into goals, while Blake Govers seized the opportunity for Australia in the 23rd minute.
As far as the shootout, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Sukhjeet Singh and Akashdeep Singh failed to net the ball, while Tom Wickham, Flynn Ogilvie and Tim Brand were successful.
