Drag-flickers VR Raghunath (15th minute) and Rupinder (27th, 49th) converted three out of seven penalty corners India earned in the match to secure their first win in an opening clash at the Olympics since Sydney Games 2000.
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Two athletes donning the green and gold for their first Olympic Games are Karri McMahon and Gabi Nance, who have shared their thoughts on the teams they will face at Rio. However, towards the end of the third quarter, John Jermyn provided Ireland with their first goal after he converted a PC to make it 1-3.
World No.150 Mouma failed to put up a fight against World No.58 Romania’s Daniela Dodean Monteiro, as the Indian went down 2-11, 7-11, 7-11, 3-11 to bow out of the competition. All said and done, it is quite a shock considering that Olympics is the only time when hockey gets its time in the sun.
Later, India saw off some frenzied offence from Ireland but Roelant Oltmans’ wards held off the challenge to win 3-2.
Sardar Singh was India’s livewire in the match.
Having captained the Indian team in Ritu’s absence during their tour of Australia earlier this year, it will be a big test for the Manipur defender who had led the Indian junior to a bronze medal finish at the Junior World Cup in Germany three years ago.
Sensing some nerves in the Indian camp, Ireland applied a lot of pressure in the last five minutes and scored their second goal in the 56th minute on another penalty corner attempt.
However, the women’s team will participate in the ceremony.”We have a match tomorrow, so we don’t want to drain the players since the ceremony will go on for long”, Hockey India President Narinder Batra told PTI.
Later, India earned their fifth penalty corner but Rupinder’s flick was lethargic.
Conor Harte scored from Ireland’s seventh penalty corner after the initial effort was saved by Indian goalkeeper PR Sreejesh.
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Argentina, who are now seventh in the FIH world rankings, fought hard to hold their world No. 2 and London 2012 silver-medallist opponents to a 3-3 draw, delighting fans on both sides and setting the tone for what organisers hope will be a competition worthy of this and future Olympics.
