High 5: Indian men win Hockey 5s title

Lausanne, June 5

A magnificent India made a stunning comeback from being 0-3 down to beat Poland 6-4 in a pulsating final to clinch the inaugural FIH Hockey 5s championship here today.

India, who had topped the five-team league standings with three wins and one draw, ended their campaign with an unbeaten record.

This was India’s second win of the day over the same opponents. India had beaten Poland, who had finished second with two wins and as many losses, 6-2 in their final round-robin league match.

Playing their third match of the day, India were stunned for a while after Poland pumped in three goals without reply in the first five minutes of play through Mateusz Nowakowski (1st minute), Wojciech Rutkowski (5th) and Robert Pawlak (5th).

India regrouped quickly from the initial jolt with Sanjay and captain Gurinder Singh finding the target in the eighth and ninth minutes, respectively, to go to the breather trailing 2-3.

It was just a matter of time that the Indians got their mojo back as they surged to 4-3 after goals from Boby Singh Dhami (11th) and Raheel Mohammed (13th).

Raheel (17th) gave India a two-goal cushion but Jacek Kurowski gave Poland hope with a goal in the 18th minute. Dhami, however, struck a minute later to seal the match.

Raheel ended as the tournament’s top-scorer with 10 goals from five matches.

India had started the day with a 7-3 win over Malaysia. They had beaten Switzerland 4-3 and drawn with Pakistan 2-2 yesterday.

Women miss out

The Indian women’s team, however, failed to make it to the final after drawing 4-4 with South Africa. They beat hosts Switzerland 4-3 earlier in the day. India would have entered the final had they beaten South Africa by a margin of two goals.