India’s Harmanpreet Singh scored a brace to power India to a 3-2 win over Belgium in the Three Nations Invitational Tournament in Dusseldorf on Monday.
Belgium made a strong start against India by playing an aggressive band of hockey. Eventually, they scored a brilliant goal thanks to Amaury Keusters, to take a 1-0 lead in the 13th minute.
Going into the second half, India continued to attack on the counter and found a breakthrough in the 34th minute. Harmanpreet Singh scored via penalty corner to give India the equaliser. Within four minutes, he scored another goal to help India claim a 2-1 lead over Belgium.
The intensity increased between both the teams in the third quarter with Belgium finding the equaliser in the 45th minute through Tanguy Cosyns’s brilliantly struck flick. With the score reading 2-2, it all came down to the final quarter with Belgium favourites to win the match.
However, India held their nerve and eventually struck goal with forward Ramandeep Singh getting the crucial third goal in the 49th minute.
His successful shot on goal helped India regain the lead with the score reading 3-2. Earlier in the tournament, India had lost 1-2 to Belgium in their first match and drew 2-2 with Germany in their second game.