India enters FIH Men's Junior World Cup 2023 semi-finals after defeating Netherlands 4-3

After falling behind by two goals, the Indian Junior Men's Hockey team made a brilliant comeback and entered the semi-finals of the FIH Men's Junior World Cup 2023 by defeating a strong team like Netherlands 4-3.

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The FIH Men's Junior World Cup quarter-final match between India and Netherlands, ranked third and fourth in the world rankings, was very exciting. The Dutch team was leading 2-0 till halftime but after that India made a comeback and scored four goals in the second half.

Meanwhile, Timo Boers (5th minute), Pepijn van der Heijden (16th minute) and Olivier Hortensius (44th minute) scored for Netherlands, while for India, Aditya Lalage (34th minute), Araijeet Singh Hundal (36th minute), Anand Kushwaha ( 52nd minute) and captain Uttam Singh (57th minute) scored the goals.

The Netherlands team started aggressively from the first quarter and scored a penalty corner, which Boers converted into a goal. In the very first minute of the second quarter, Van der Heijden converted the second penalty corner to give the team a 2-0 lead which remained till halftime.

India made a brilliant comeback in the third quarter, which was led by Araijeet Singh. He assisted Lalage's goal in the 34th minute and converted the penalty stroke two minutes later to level the score at 2-2.

The Dutch team again took the lead in the third quarter when Olivier converted a penalty corner. In the last ten minutes, the Indian team displayed excellent hockey and scored two goals. Kushwaha equalized the score by scoring a goal on the rebound in the 52nd minute. India got an important penalty corner in the 57th minute, on which captain Uttam Singh made no mistake in scoring the goal.

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In the last two minutes, the Dutch team tried its best to score an equalizing goal but the Indian defense remained as firm as a rock. In the last quarter, Rohit saved six consecutive penalty corners and was chosen Player of the Match for this brilliant performance.

The Indian team will play against Germany in the FIH Men's Junior World Cup semi-finals on Thursday.