FIH Pro League 2022-23: India beat Great Britain 4-2 in penalty shootout in a thrilling encounter

The Indian men's hockey team defeated Great Britain 4-2 in a very exciting match through penalty shootout in the FIH Pro League 2022-23 tie at the Lee Valley Hockey Centre in London on Saturday.

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Abhishek, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Harmanpreet Singh, and former captain Manpreet Singh scored goals for India in the shootout to ensure victory for their team. The match ended in a 4-4 draw. After this Indian goalkeeper Krishan Bahadur Pathak made two saves in the penalty shoot-out to help India win the bonus point. For the Indian men's hockey team, Harmanpreet Singh (7'), Mandeep Singh (19'), Sukhjeet Singh (28') and Abhishek (50') scored goals. On the other hand, Sam Ward from Great Britain scored four goals for his team in the 8th, 39th, 46th, and 52nd minutes.

India's Harmanpreet Singh scored the first goal of the match, converting a penalty corner in the sixth minute. In response, Sam Ward of Great Britain scored the first goal for his team. He scored a goal in the 7th minute of the match. He also made the score 1-1 by opening the account for his team through the penalty corner. After that, there were no more goals in the first quarter of the game. At the same time, there was no goal for 17 minutes in the second quarter. In the 18th minute, India's Mandeep Singh scored a brilliant field goal to give his team the lead. Sukhjeet Singh then scored a field goal in the 27th minute to make it 3-1. Great Britain did not score a single goal in the second quarter.

India's score was 3-1 at half-time, after which Sam Ward scored his team's second goal in the 39th minute of the match, converting a penalty corner. There was not a single goal from India in the third quarter. By the time the third quarter ended, the score was now 3–2. Still, the Indian team was ahead by 1 goal. The final quarter saw Great Britain play aggressively. Sam Ward completed his hat-trick in the match by scoring from a penalty corner in the 46th minute. By this goal, Great Britain equalized with India. Now the score was tied at 3-3. After this, the game was on full swing.

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Then in the 49th minute, India's 23-year-old Abhishek scored a brilliant field goal to make the score 4-3 in favor of the Indian team. But for Great Britain, in-form Sam Ward scored his and his team's fourth goal in the 52nd minute to level the score at 4–4. The match ended 4-4 in regulation time. After that, the match was decided through a penalty shoot-out, in which the Indian team won the match by scoring four goals against two.

The Indian men's hockey team will travel to the Netherlands to play the hosts and Argentina next week. The team will now play their next FIH Pro League 2022-23 match against the Netherlands on Wednesday, June 7. The match will start at 11:10 PM IST.