The Indian men’s hockey group procures a memorable success over Great Britain Britain 3-1 in the quarterfinals of the Tokyo Olympics on Sunday, to arrive at the semi-final of the quadrennial game.
It’s been 49 years since India didn’t reach the semi-finals of the Olympics. The last time they reached that stage was the 1972 Munich Games, wherein they won the bronze after receiving a defeat by arch-rivals Pakistan.
But today is one of the most special days in the history of Indian Men’s hockey in the last four decades. The team didn’t have star players like Dhanraj Pillay or Sandeep Singh or Sardar Singh who, in spite of being globally popular, couldn’t help India in winning a medal. But, Manpreet Singh’s men acted as a unit where each player rose to the occasion when needed. Today, a combined unit played together to show why the Indian team are in the top-3 positions of the world.
Dilpreet Singh, Gurjant Singh, and Hardik Singh were on the scoresheet as India delivered a historic win over Great Britain. A concrete self-possession in the midfield with the number of correct passes between the defense and offense lead to this reverberating triumph. Goalkeeper Sreejesh has been the sanctioned guardian for the Blues.
In their latest visit through Europe in March this year, India had gone head to head with Great Britain in two games where they drew 1-1 in the first game, and beat Great Britain 3-2 in the second. Indian team saw a reawakening since their elimination from the Hockey World Cup quarter-finals in 2018 with their game getting strong and rising through the ladders. The Indian men’s hockey team showed promise in their run-up to the Tokyo Olympics in the last couple of years.
Notwithstanding the failure against Australia (1-7) in their second game in the Pool A matches in the Olympics, India did well to complete second in their pool with significant successes against New Zealand (3-2), Spain (3-0), Argentina (3-1) and Japan (5-3).
Now, a resounding success against Great Britain has again kept us waiting with bated breath — will the Indian team win a medal at the Olympics after 41 years?
