India defeat Canada 5-3 in Azlan Shah

Ipoh (Malaysia): The Indian hockey team finally managed their first win of the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, defeating Canada 5-3 at the Azlan Shah Stadium here on Thursday.

The first quarter saw fights for ball possession but India grabbed their opportunities to open their account. Drag-flicker Rupinder Pal Singh made full use of his penalty corner chance and converted in the 13th minute. Canada earned two penalty corners but failed to capitalise on them.

Making some swift moves, India earned another penalty corner but wasted it as Rupinder hit the ball way above the net.

With the change of sides and just two minutes into the third quarter, V.R. Raghunath converted a penalty corner (32nd minute) to double the lead.

By this time Canada started making some desperate attempts and their efforts finally bore fruit when Oliver Scholfield (43rd) scored.

The last quarter rained goals. Within two minutes of the restart, India extended their lead to 4-1 as Ramandeep Singh scored a brace (46th, 47th). Canada bounced back when Jagdish Gill converted a penalty corner in the 49th minute.

Only a few seconds later, India retaliated with Satbir Singh scoring a field goal. Canada added another goal to their tally as David Jameson made no mistake in netting the ball in the 52nd minute.

With both the teams unable to add any further goals, India won 5-3.

India, who are already out of the title race, will play their final league match against reigning World Champions Australia on Saturday.

They had earlier drawn 2-2 against South Korea, lost 1-2 to New Zealand and gone down 2-3 to Malaysia.