The Netherlands completes a grand double against India in FIH Pro League

The Netherlands was quick to put behind its humiliating 2-1 loss to Australia a day earlier to complete a grand double of wins against India in the FIH Pro League at Eindhoven on Saturday. The Netherlands won 3-2. It had earlier beaten India 4-1.

Hardik Singh, who led India in the absence of Harmanpreet Singh, had a great game but could not help his side salvage a point in its penultimate game of the current edition of the FIH Pro League.

Sanjay, playing his fifth international, and Gurjant Singh were scorers for India against young and new look Dutch side.

Interestingly, two of the three goals came from players who made their international debut in the first match against India early this year. And for Duco Tegenkamp, it was a dream come true. After scoring the last two goals in the 4-1 win in the first match, he scored the first goal for his team to complete a hat trick of goals against India. He scored the fourth goal also, off a penalty corner, in the 14 minute but it was later disallowed after Indians protested.

Another debutant in the current series, Boris Burkhardt, too scored again. This time he accounted for the second goal for his team. Tjep Hoedmaker scored from a penalty corner to complete the tally for the home team.

In fact, the young Dutch team was looking for redemption after its heavy loss to Australia a day earlier,  and it got in its immediate next match. The home team was first to score. Sheldon Schouten hit an attacking ball into the circle which found its way through traffic to Duco Telgenkamp to tap it in from the back post.

Telgenkamp was in action again, finding the back of the net off a penalty corner rebound. But a Dutch backstick before Telgenkamp’s strike meant the goal was disallowed.

India equalised when a great aerial ball found Sanjay on the baseline. He controlled it well and then beat the defence with a clever spin to find the far corner for his first international goal.

Abhishek received another aerial ball into the circle with just a few seconds left on the clock in the first half, but his shot was comfortably saved by keeper Derk Meijer to keep the scores level at the break.

Ten minutes into the third quarter, a fantastic pass from Luke Dommershuijzen to a perfectly placed Boris Burkhardt gave the Dutchman plenty of time to blast it into goal.

Another Dutch penalty corner was then saved, but from the ensuing play, Joep de Mol injected the ball back in for Tjep Hoedemakers to produce the faintest of touches and deflect in through the keeper’s legs for the home side to take a 3-1 advantage into the final break.

Just 21 seconds into the final quarter a defensive error by the Dutch on their left flank saw Sukhjit turning over the ball. That allowed Lalit Upadhyay the opportunity to cross it to an unmarked Gurjant Singh who ran into the circle and hit a cracking reverse stick shot past the keeper’s left foot.

There was plenty more action in the remaining minutes of the match but the score remained at 3-2, much to the relief of the home side.

Joep de Mol was named player of the match and said: “It was pretty tough. I think after the lesson Australia gave us it was a chance for us to respond today and I think we did pretty well with that. It wasn’t always good but at least we fought to the end and got the three points.”

Prabhjot Singh