Tokyo Olympics, Day 5: Rupinderpal Singh shines as India thrash Spain 3-0 in Hockey

Rupinderpal Singh scored two goals as Team India registered an emphatic victory over the Spaniards.

Tokyo:India led by the performances of Dragflicker Rupinderpal Singh and Simranjeet Singh on Tuesday took their team to victory on Tuesday here at Oi Hockey Stadium South Pitch in the third Pool A match of the Tokyo Olympics.

Midfielder Simranjeet opened the account for India in 13th minute. Rupinderpal, scored the second via penalty stroke in 15th minute of the game giving India a match winning lead in the first quarter.

In the fourth quarter, Rupinder made sure that the team is on the winning side with a goal in 51 st minute.

Earlier, after a fighting 3-2 win over New Zealand in their campaign opener, the Indians were completely steam-rolled 1-7 by world no.1 Australia in their second game. By the end of these two matches, they were placed fourth in the table.

But this time, India showed dominance throughout the four quarters to register an emphatic victory as they play their next match against Olympic champions Argentina on Thursday.

Spain drew 1-1 against Argentina before losing 3-4 to New Zealand.

For any team it is always tough to recover from a morale-shattering loss within a day, but India looked more organised and sorted against Spain on Tuesday.

Manpreet Singh's men played high pressure hockey from the word go and dominated the possession in initial 10 minutes even though they failed to create any real scoring opportunities.

In the ninth minute, India came close to breaking the deadlock but Simranjeet's deflection from skipper Manpreet Singh sailed over the goal.

Spain slowly and steadily got into the groove and secured their first penalty corner in the 12th minute but wasted the chance.

The Indians mounted number of attacks in the final few minutes of the game and the ploy bore fruits when Spain's defence was caught off guard by Amit Rohidas' pass and an unmarked Simranjeet just tapped the ball into the goal past Quico Cortes.

The goal rejuvenated India as they secured three back-to-back penalty corners in the final minute of the first quarter and from the third set piece Harmanpreet's flick found the body of a Spanish defender, which resulted in a penalty stroke.

Rupinder Pal Singh stepped up and made no mistake in doubling India's lead.

Trailing by two goals, the Spaniards pressed the Indian defence hard in the second quarter and the play was mostly inside the Indian half.

Spain's pressure tactics earned them three penalty corners in the third quarter -- the last one coming just seconds from the end following a referral -- but the Indian defence held firm to keep their lead intact.

Experienced India goalkeeper PR Sreejesh, who had a nightmarish outing against Australia, had a brilliant game as he showed good reflexes to pull off some fine saves.

The fragile Indian defence, known for succumbing in tough situations, somehow managed to soak up the pressure put up by the Spaniards.

With a two goal cushion, the Indians were quite content in just defending in the fourth and final quarter as Spain continued to apply relentless pressure.

But in the 51st minute India managed to find the net again when they earned a penalty corner, their fourth of the match, from a counter attack and this time Rupinder was bang on target with a powerful low flick to the right of Spanish goalkeeper Cortes.

Down 0-3, Spain didn't give up and continued to attack in numbers while the Indians looked to just defend.

In the 53rd minute, Spain secured three consecutive penalty corners but their dragflicker Pau Quemada failed to breach the Indian back-line led by Sreejesh.

Spain secured another penalty corner in the final minutes of the game but again Sreejesh denied Quemada to help India keep a clean sheet.

(With inputs from PTI)