Men in Blue upset world no. 3 Belgium

New Delhi: India produced a spirited performance to upstage world no. 3 Belgium 5-4 in their second match of the four-nations invitational tournament’s second leg in Hamilton on Thursday.

India had lost 1-2 to Belgium in the final of the first leg earlier in the month but held their nerve till the final hooter to come up with a winner in a high-tempo encounter.

Rupinder Pal Singh (4th minute, 42nd), Harmanpreet Singh (46th), Lalit Upadhyay (53rd) and Dilpreet Singh (59th) were on target while John-John Dohmen (17th), Felix Denayer (37th), Alexander Hendrickx (45th) and Tom Boon (56th) scored for Belgium.

India began with disciplined, two-touch hockey to rotate the ball swiftly and accurately towards Belgium’s box.

The effort paid off early when Vivek Sagar Prasad won India’s first penalty corner of the match, allowing the in-form Rupinder putting the ball into the net.

The early goal put Belgium on the back foot.

But the Europeans equalised in the second quarter through Dohmen’s reverse hit.

The match took a dramatic turn in the third quarter, with both teams displaying top-level skills.

Belgium converted another penalty corner to surge ahead 2-1.

Minutes later, a defensive error saw Belgium give away a penalty corner, which was superbly struck by Rupinder to make it 2-2.

The see-saw contest turned towards Belgium when India failed to negotiate another penalty corner to fall behind 2-3.

Both teams were unrelenting in their attacking intent.

Harmanpreet Singh slotted home a rebound from a penalty corner to level it at 3-3 and Upadhyay continued the momentum to put India ahead 4-3 in the 53rd minute.

India failed to protect their lead as drag flicker Tom Boon’s fierce strike enabled Belgium to level it 4-4.

With the clock ticking away, both teams looked for the winner. India came up trumps with Ramandeep Singh’s goal-bound shot smartly deflected in by Dilpreet.

India next face Japan on Saturday.