Varun Kumar and Mandeep Singh struck in dying minutes of the game as the Indian men's hockey team pulled off a thrilling 4-3 win over England to top Pool B in the Commonwealth Games here today.
It was Varun Kumar (59th minute) who scored the 3-3 equaliser through a well-struck penalty corner before Mandeep Singh (60') scored the winner.
Rupinder Pal Singh (51') and Manpreet Singh (33') were the other goal scorers for India while David Condon (17'), Liam Ansell (52') and Sam Ward (56') struck for England.
India's final league game also decided their semifinal opponents. They will take on New Zealand while England will face defending champions Australia.
It was Manpreet's fierce strike from the midfield that found a deflection off Mandeep's stick and ensured a sensational win for India.
This kind of hard work on field is what we trained for in the last few weeks in Bengaluru where we paid a lot of attention to discipline and winning mentality. I'm happy this has come in the right moment in the tournament after an average start, said chief coach Sjoerd Marijne.
Talking about the semifinal against New Zealand, the coach said: "I want the team to keep up this winning momentum. New Zealand are a good team, they did well against Australia and I want our boys to soak up this energy from this match against England and focus on the semifinal."
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