Auckland: After a successful European Tour against France and Spain, Indian men hockey team started their New Zealand tour with a warm-up match against New Zealand A team at North Harbor hockey ground in Auckland.

India started off aggressively and took the lead through striker Akashdeep, who converted the first goal of the match in the initial minutes itself. However, the visitors gave too many penalty corners to the Kiwis in the first few minutes. Young Kiwi boys tried hard to convert but failed to penetrate the Indian strong defence line.

In the second quarter, Sardar Singh-led team upped their ante and in the 20th minute, forward Ramaneep Singh increased the margin to 2-0. Indian Diaspora, who had come to watch the match, soon had a moment to cheer when Nikkin Thimmaiah converted a brilliant goal in the 25th minute.

Indian were leading 3-0 at the end of half time.

In third quarter, Indian forwards tried to create some more pressure on the hosts but failed to convert. Later, in the same quarter, New Zealand got penalty corner and Cory Bennett did no mistake and through his brilliant drag flick opened the account for the Kiwis, making it 3-1.

In the fourth and final quarter, both the teams tried hard to convert, but in vain. Though India won the match, their failure to convert the penalty corner was a cause of concern for the coach. Indian chief coach Oltmas seemed disappointed by the performance of the team. He said, “We did not convert any PC into goal. We missed many chances. I was expecting a win by bigger margin.”

Indian midfielder Devinder Walmiki said, “It was our first game and we all were really geared up to face the Black Sticks as we had three-week camp in Delhi. We started the series with a win and it’s a good sign for us. Hope we keep the same momentum in our coming five matches.”

By Amar Kumar