Bronze medal winners in Tokyo, India began their Paris Olympic Games campaign with a not-so-impressive 3-2 win over New Zealand.
The Pool B match at Yves-du-Manoir Stadium, which India could have lost, was saved by captain Harmanpreet Singh’s penalty stroke in the 59th minute.
New Zealand could have got at least a point from this game but Hayden Phillips’s attempt, immediately after Singh’s penalty stroke, missed the target by a whisker.
India looked jaded most of the time and New Zealand punished them by taking the lead in the eighth minute through Sam Lanes’s penalty corner past rival goalkeeper PR Sreejesh.
In the 24th minute, Mandeep Singh made it 1-1 — this one too off a penalty corner. Ten minutes later it was Vivek Sagar Prasad who gave India the lead.
But between the 36th and 37th minutes, New Zealand earned four consecutive corners and this time Sreejesh was equal to the task making two good saves.
Still one could sense that New Zealand would get the equaliser and it came in the 53rd minute when Simon Child restored parity off another penalty corner.
Sreejesh could have done better dealing with this penalty corner. But in the end, the captain’s stroke sealed the deal for Craig Fulton’s men.
Earlier, the Netherlands toyed with South Africa 5-3, Belgium beat Ireland 2-0, Australia prevailed over Argentina 1-0, Germany routed France 8-2 and Great Britain trounced Spain 4-0.
