Harmanpreet Singh converted two penalty corners to help India defend its Sultan of Johor Cup under-21 hockey title, beating Great Britain 2-1 in a keenly-contested final, here on Sunday.
Harmanpreet (45th and 90th) slammed home two set-pieces at the Taman Daya Hockey Stadium to take his tally to eight in the tournament. For Great Britain, Samuel French (55th minute) was the lone scorer.
Great Britain, unbeaten in the preliminary round, came into the final with a psychological advantage over India having beaten it 2-0 in its round robin clash. But defending champion India had a record to play for as it wanted to become the first team to win the title twice since the inception of the tournament in 2011.
Malaysia had won the inaugural title, with Germany winning in 2012 and India last year. And the young Indians duly achieved their goal with a late winner from Harmanpreet.
Harmanpreet scored his second and all-important winner for India just 45 seconds from time by converting his second penalty corner of the day.
It was a hard-fought encounter between India and Great Britain as both teams did not give an inch to each other atleast in the opening half.
But India finally took the lead in the 45th minute through a Harmanpreet’s penalty corner conversion. Varun Kumar then got a chance to double India’s lead, but his attempt from a penalty corner in the 53rd flew inches wide.
Great Britain then added salt to India’s wounds when French converted a penalty corner in the 55th minute to level the scores at 1-1.
A controversy then erupted in the 62nd minute when Indian custodian Abhnav Pandey was shown the green card and an outfield player was taken off to bring on substitute ’keeper Subodh Tirkey.
With the match heading towards a shoot-off, India was awarded another penalty corner just 45 seconds from the hooter and Harmanpreet duly converted the chance to help India retain the title.
In the bronze medal play-off earlier in the day, Australia defeated New Zealand 6-2.
