By IANS,
Ipoh (Malaysia) : India shrugged off their poor penalty-corner strike rate to convert four out of four and registered a 6-4 victory against Belgium in the Azlan Shah hockey tournament here Monday.
India have now six points from four matches with two victories and two defeats. India lost their first two matches against New Zealand and Argentina before opening their account against Canada Sunday.
Shivendra Singh and Sandeep Singh scored two goals each while S V Sunil and Diwakar Ram chipped in with one as India romped to their second win in the tournament.
Alexender de Sadeleere, Jerome Trueyns, Thomas Briels and Charles Vandewgheles were the scorers for Belgium.
India were sitting pretty on a 4-1 cushion at the breather before a resurgent Belgium came back hard to strike two goals in the second half. India, though, raised their game in the final moments of the match and scored two more goals.
India has been wasting penalty corners in heaps in the tournament, but Monday they converted four penalty corners, all in the first half. Surprisingly, India did not get any penalty corner in the second half.
Shivendra scored the first goal through a rebound that came off Sandeep’s strike.
Sandeep, who had scored three goals in the match against New Zealand, sparkled with his red-hot form and scored two more goals, converting penalty corners.
Young drag-flicker Diwakar Ram was not to be left behind and he converted the last penalty corner that India got in the first half.
Belgium did well to raise their game to pull back three goals before Shivendra struck again. Shivendra and Sunil combined for one final act to dodge the Belgium defence with their deft stick work before Sunil slotted home.