Bhubaneswar: Hosts India defeated third-ranked Netherlands 5-2 in their opening fixture of the FIH Pro League which was played at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on Saturday. India, who are ranked fifth in the FIH rankings will also play the Netherlands on Sunday in the same venue to complete the two-match opening tie against the visitors.
The hosts started the match with a bang as they scored a goal in the very first minute of the match. The visitors started the proceedings, however, Gurjant Singh won the ball and squared it towards Mandeep Singh who pulled it back for Gujrant who calmly smashed the assisted pass into the back of the net.
India lead 2-0 inside 11 minutes after Rupinderpal Singh converted the penalty corner into a goal. The Netherlands, soon came back into the match after Jip Janssen converted a penalty corner as he smashed the ball into the bottom right corner to reduce the arrears.
Soon in the 28th minute, Diego van Pufferlen and Baker combined on the left as van Pufferlen cut back the ball towards Jeroen Hertzberger who then flicked it into the back of the net to pull his team level.
As the game resumed after half-time, in the 33rd minute Harmanpreet intervened in the centre to put Manpreet in a perfect position to thread a pass to Mandeep who just took two touches to finish at the far bottom corner.
India scored another in the 36th minute after a delightful one-two exchange between Harmanpreet and Lalit helped the former to create an angle on the left and find the bottom corner once again for the hosts.
Rupinder Pal Singh scored his second goal of the match in the 46th minute courtesy of a penalty corner as India now dominated the match with a scoreline of 5-2.
There were no further goals in the match as India thrashed Netherlands 5-2 in the opening game of the two-legged tie.
