New Delhi: Riding on goals by Chinglensana Singh and SV Sunil, India defeated France 2-0 in their opening Test match of the two-match series in France on Monday.
Chinglensana scored the opening goal to give India the lead while Sunil slotted the second goal to put India in the driver's seat against the hosts.
India were leading 2-0 at half-time.
Goalkeeper PR Sreejesh's made a flurry of brilliant saves in the second half and denied France any chance of scoring. The French players were creating opportunities but Sreejesh and the defenders guarded the post brilliantly for India.
In the first quarter, both the teams attacked aggressively on each other half and tried score the first goal for their team. After series of attacks from both sides, India’s midfielder Chinglensana sneaked into French half and hit the ball in the goal-box to score the first goal of the match in the 18th minute. With this early lead, Indians took control of the match and put French players in tremendous pressure.
Indians didn’t allow France to take control of the ball and the opponent struggled in rest of the quarter. After intense tussle from both sides, first quarter ended at 1-0 score in favour of India.
In the second quarter, Indians came on the field with more confidence and maintained their control over the match. Led by captain Sardar Singh, midfielders SK Uthappa, Danish Mujtaba and Devinder Walmiki displayed a high-level hockey skills and kept their team attacking. Forward players SV Sunil, Ramandeep Singh and Akashdeep Singh kept on charging on the French side and played the ball in their half. After continuous attacks, SV Sunil dribbled past French defenders and sent the ball into the nets for the second goal in the 26th minute. Leading by two goals, Indian continued their domination on the match and maintained the score-card at 2-0 by the end of second quarter.
In the third quarter, France stepped in with aggression and surprised India with their quick passes. French players were desperately looking for opportunities to score goals and reduce the margin. They attacked on Indian side and tried hard for goal-scoring chances, which brought pressure on Indian side. In few occasions, they came very close to Indian goal-posts but Indian defence-line restricted their attacks. In the last few minutes of the quarter, France earned a penalty corner, which successfully thwarted by India goal-keeper Sreejesh and maintained the score-line at 2-0 by the end of third quarter.
The fourth quarter seen the closely-fought battle as both the teams pushed each others to score more goals. French players played with more aggression and they managed to earn two back-to-back penalty corners. But both were saved by Sreejesh with his brilliant moves. Indians counter attacked on France’s half and tried hard to increase the score-sheet. However, as the match got closed to the final whistle, both the teams challenged each other and fought hard for the ball possession and score more goals. After a neck-to-neck battle, the match finished at 2-0 in favour of India.
India had recently beaten France in the World League Semifinals in Belgium.
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