In the ongoing Junior Hockey World Cup in Odisha, the Indian team defeated Poland by 8-2 in the third match to seal its place in the quarter-finals. In this match, Sanjay, Hundal Arijit Singh and Sudeep Chirmako scored 2 goals each while Uttam Singh and Shardanand Tiwari scored 1-1.
Wojciech Rutkowski and Robert Powlak scored 1-1 for Poland. After scoring a hat-trick in India's first two matches, vice-captain Sanjay continued his stellar form while Hundal, who scored a hat-trick against Canada, also scored two goals in this match. The Indian junior hockey team will now take on Belgium, the runners-up of the previous leg, in the quarter-finals on December 1. Belgium beat Malaysia in Pool A by goal difference as both the teams had 7-7 points.
India lost to France in the opening match of the tournament. In such a situation, India needed to win both the matches to secure their place in the quarter-finals. India had earlier kept their hopes up for the quarterfinals by defeating Canada by 13-1. On the other hand, the match against Poland did or die for them.
Star drag-flicker Sanjay scored the first goal for the team in the fourth minute from a penalty corner. It was his seventh goal of the tournament. Just four minutes later, India doubled their lead. In which again the goal was scored from the penalty corner but this goal was scored by Hundal. Then in the 24th minute, Sudeep tripled India's lead with a brilliant field goal and the score was 3-0 in his favor at half-time.
In the four minutes of the third quarter, Uttam gave India a 4-0 lead with a field goal. Tiwary then increased the score in the 38th minute by scoring from a penalty corner. Sudeep again scored in the 40th minute. Then Poland, trailing 0-6, took penalty corners in the final quarter and scored a goal in the meantime to reduce the margin of defeat.
