A brace each from Mandeep Singh and Gursahibjit Singh helped the Indian men’s hockey team drub Malaysia 6-0 in their opening encounter of the Olympic Test event here on Saturday.
Gurinder Singh and SV Sunil were the other players to register their names on the scoresheet.
It was in the eighth minute that India earned their first penalty corner of the match, which was converted by Gurinder.
The start of the second quarter saw India score in the 18th minute through forward Gursahibjit, who was found inside the striking circle by Gurjant Singh.
India continued to attack Malaysia at the start of the third quarter, and it was vice-captain Mandeep, who registered his name on the scoresheet in the 33rd minute, after Jaskaran Singh set him up well through some creative play.
In the last quarter, India put more pressure on their opponents and scored three more goals. In the 46th minute Mandeep scored his second goal of the match.
A Malaysian penalty corner was well-defended by the World No. 5 team, and converted into an attack which was finished off by Mandeep to make it 4-0.
The fifth and sixth goals came in the 56th and 60th minutes as Gursahibjit and Sunil scored respectively.
India will face World No 8 New Zealand on Sunday.
Indian eves score
The Indian women’s hockey team started its campaign in the Olympic test event with a resilient 2-1 victory over hosts Japan.
India took an early lead through their penalty corner specialist, Gurjit Kaur, in the ninth minute, but the hosts equalised in the 16th minute as Aki Mitsuhashi scored a field goal.
However, Gurjit stepped up again in the 35th minute to convert yet another penalty corner, which turned out to be the decisive goal in the match.