Hockey In CWG 2022: Indian men’s team reaches semi-finals, Harmanpreet Singh storms Wales

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Harmanpreet Singh’s hat-trick helped India enter the semi-finals of the men’s hockey event of the Commonwealth Games on Thursday after beating Wales 4-1 in the last league match of Pool B. Harmanpreet scored two goals on penalty corners in the 19th, 20th and 40th minutes and scored one goal on a penalty stroke. On the other hand, Gurjant scored the field gold in the 49th minute. Jareth Furlong scored the only goal for Wales in the 55th minute.

The Indian team, which defeated Ghana 11–0 in the first match and 8–0 to Canada in the third match, drew 4–4 against England. World ranking fifth-ranked Manpreet Singh’s team topped Pool B with a goal average of plus 22. England are yet to play their last match against Canada and can reach the top only if they win by a margin of 15 goals. The top team will not have to play Australia in the semi-finals.

Tokyo Olympic bronze medalist India got the ball under control in the first two quarters but Wales kept it tied in the first 15 minutes. India got a penalty corner in the eighth minute but Varun Kumar could not score. Wells players also entered the Indian circle but Carlsen’s shot was saved by goalkeeper PR Sreejesh going ahead.

In the second quarter, Harmanpreet converted two penalty corners to give her a 2-0 lead at half-time. In the second half, India got their fifth penalty corner in the beginning but the goal could not be scored. India got two consecutive penalty corners in the 40th minute and the second penalty was converted into a stroke on which Harmanpreet scored. Gurjant took the lead 4-0 in the fourth quarter with a goal from Shamsher Singh. Wales got two penalty corners in the counter-attack, the second of which was scored by Furlong. The semi-final matches will be played on Saturday, August 6.