India defeated Great Britain 3-1 on Sunday at the Tokyo Olympics to advance to the semifinals, leaving the country overjoyed. Since the 1980 Olympic games gold medal in Moscow, India has never advanced to the semifinals stage again, until now.
India will now face world champions Belgium in the semifinals.
Forwards Dilpreet Singh and Gurjant Singh scored goals in the first two quarters giving India a 2-0 lead, but when Sam Ward of Great Britain converted a penalty corner into a goal at the 45th minute before the end of the third quarter, the lead was down to 2-1, leaving the game open for a possibility of reversal of fortunes in the fourth quarter.
However, Great Britain players could not get past P.R.Sreejesh anymore. Sreejesh’s exceptional goalkeeping today is highlighted by the fact that Great Britain has had eight penalty corners altogether, amongst which only one turned out to be a goal.
Finally, Hardik Singh’s third goal in the fourth quarter, with only a few minutes left in the play, sealed India’s victory.
On an interesting note, India did not get a penalty corner at all, as opposed to Great Britain’s eight. Also, this is India’s first victory against Great Britain on AstroTurf.
India’s match against Belgium is scheduled to start at 7 AM on August 3rd.