By Anand Philar, IANS
Chennai : Rajpal Singh scored three minutes from the close to give India a hard-fought 3-2 win over Belgium in the third hockey Test at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium here Monday.
Earlier, V. Ramachandra Raghunath (33rd) and Dilip Tirkey (48th) had scored for India while Belgium’s goals came from Charles Vanderweghe (6th) and Jerome Dekeyser (63rd).
India lead the five-Test series 2-0, having won the second Test 5-0 following the 4-4 draw in the opener.
The teams take a day’s break Tuesday ahead of back-to-back Test matches on Wednesday and Thursday.
India were trifle lucky to come away with a victory as Belgium kept pace and could have fared better had they capitalized on their scoring chances.
Overall, there was little to separate the two on the day’s showing and a draw would have been a fairer outcome considering that the exchanges were fairly even for the better part of the match.
While the Indians dished out some eye-catching moves marked by individual flair, the Belgians resorted to wait-and-watch game depending on fast counter-attacks that were based on long, diagonal hits to the wings.
The first-half was hugely disappointing with neither team able to exert even a modicum of dominance. The moves swung from end to end with monotonous regularity while the rival defenders did a fine job to thwart every attempt on goal.
The Belgians, smarting from the 5-0 drubbing in the second Test Sunday, were anxious to seize the initiative and put India under pressure.
To an extent, they succeeded as an opportunistic Vanderweghe put home goalkeeper Bharat Chetri’s poor clearance off a Patrice Houssein free-hit from the left in the sixth minute.
Thereafter, the Indians had more of the exchanges as the hosts stepped up the pace. However, poor finish coupled with some excellent defending denied India.
The closest India came to scoring was during the three penalty corners they forced, but on each occasion, Dilip Tirkey’s direct hits got deflected for abortive long corners.
To India’s credit, they kept chipping away at the Belgian defence until the ceaseless pressure finally told on the visitors in the 33rd minute.
Shivender found a well-placed and unmarked Raghunath near the penalty spot with an accurate diagonal pass. Raghunath kept his wits to divert the ball past an out-of-position goalkeeper Vincent Vanash for the equaliser.
Seconds before the half-time hooter India nearly scored again. Vanash made a mess of an easy clearance and put a waist-high ball in the path of Shivender who, however, swatted it wide of the posts.
On resumption, Belgium shook the Indian defence with a speedy move down the middle that Vanderweghe crafted. He put Thomas Briels in possession. The tall winger centred and the ball slid off Bharat Chetri’s pads, but Briels failed to connect.
At the other end, India forced their fourth penalty corner past the 47th minute that Dilip Tirkey converted with a direct hit that a defender unwittingly deflected into the net (2-1).
A few minutes later, Raghunath traded power for precision as he swept a pass from Khandekar high over the crosspiece from close.
India continued to press hard but again, the Belgian defenders were to the fore with some close marking and quick clearances one of which led to a fast counter-attack in the 63rd minute and Derkeyser, put through by Briels, swung around his marker Prabodh Tirkey and found the net with a reverse hit to put the teams on level terms (2-2).
Three minutes from close, Rajpal put India in front (3-2) with a reverse hit after latching on to a loose ball outside the circle. The Belgian defence was caught napping and Rajpal was left free to make the attempt.