Hockey India mens hockey team beat wales 4 1 in Group B mens hockey storm into semis

Commonwealth Games | Harmanpreet Singh's hat-trick helped India reach the semi-finals of the Commonwealth Games after beating Wales 4-1 in the men's hockey event on Thursday. The Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist India played an aggressive game from the very first quarter, but the Wales defense responded well. However, in the second quarter, Harmanpreet Singh converted two penalty corners to give India the lead. In India's last Pool B match, vice-captain Harmanpreet (18', 20', 41') scored three goals while Gurjant (49') contributed one goal. Wales' only goal was scored by Gareth Furlong (55'). India dominated opposition Wales from the start of the match, although neither side scored in the first quarter. In the second quarter, India converted two penalty corners.

Harmanpreet first caught the opposition goalkeeper in the third minute of Quarter-2 and brought the ball to the net, and then two minutes later scored a goal to the left of the goalkeeper. With this goal, he became the highest goalscorer in the Commonwealth Games 2022 with eight goals. In the third quarter of the match, Harmanpreet missed a penalty corner, though she completed a hat-trick of goals in the match, making a successful 41st-minute penalty stroke.

Gurjant's only hockey goal came in the 49th minute when he guided Shamsher's pass to the net. The goal was rejected earlier but was declared valid after India's video referral. Wales's Furlong scored his team's consolation goal in the 10th minute of quarter-4 from a penalty corner. Four minutes earlier, Furlong had got another penalty corner but his shot was successfully blocked by Indian goalkeeper Krishna Pathak.

After winning their last pool match, India have moved up to the top spot with 10 points from four matches. In second place is England with seven points to play a match against Canada. If England want to come first, they will have to bridge India's 12-goal gap.

Earlier, world number five India had defeated Ghana 11-0 in the first match, but in the second match, the brunt of the indiscipline performance suffered in the form of a 4-4 draw with England. In the third, the Indian team came back and defeated Canada 8-0.