Indians once again proved that hockey is in our blood as they came up with a magnificent display at the inaugural FIH Hockey 5s Championship beating Poland 6-4 in the finals to be crowned as the first champions of this tournament.
The Men in Blue were down in the finale as they clawed their way back and that gave then momentum and they continued to score a few more and hence the scoreline looks a little misleading. The Indians led the charge right from the start as they led the five team standings with three wins and a draw as they reached the finals of the inaugural event.
Playing their third match of the day the Indian team were shocked when Poland scored thrice in the opening five minutes without any reply. Mateusz Nowakowski scored the first goal in the opening minute followed by goals from Wojciech Rutkowski and captain Robert Pawlak in the 5th minute. The Indians were shell shocked when they conceded twice in the fifth minute of the game.
However Graham Reid’s men retaliated quickly as Sanjay and captain Gurinder found early responses in the eight and ninth minutes of the game. Those goals brought India back in the game and made everyone believe that it is not over yet for the Men in Blue.
Indians then played with a rejuvenated mentality and took the lead as they scored two quick goals. Dhami Boby Singh scored in the eleventh minute to restore pairyt in the game whereas Mohammed Raheel put India ahead with his goal in the 13th minute of the game. Raheel has been the most prolific goalscorer of this event.
Reid’s men did not allow the Polish players to settle down as they knew they had to close this game out and another opportunities to the Polish will be suicidal from them. Therefore India scored two more goals as Raheel bagged a nice brace in the finals as India lifted the inaugural edition of the FIH Hockey 5s Championship but not before Polish star Jacek Kurowski scored a consolation.
Raheel ended the tournament at the top of the goalscorer’s chart as he scored 10 goals in five matches and played a very influential role in helping India win the title.
