Double delight

Gurjant Singh’s brace helps India men beat Japan 5-3 and finish second in pool, while Navneet Kaur’s late strike ensures women defeat Ireland to keep Last-8 hopes alive

Double delight

Gurjant Singh (right) after scoring against Japan yesterday. Pics/AP; PTI

Striker Gurjant Singh was twice on target as India comfortably outclassed hosts Japan 5-3 on Friday to complete their pool proceedings with four victories having already sealed a quarter-final berth, while Navneet Kaur scored a late winner as the women’s hockey team kept its quarter-final hopes alive with a 1-0 win over Ireland in a must-win penultimate pool match on Friday.

Apart from Gurjant (17th, 56th min), Harmanpreet Singh (13th min), Shamsher Singh (34th min) and Nilakanta Sharma (51st min) scored for India to hand the eight-time Olympic champions their third consecutive win in Pool A.

Kenta Tanaka (19th), Kota Watanabe (33rd) and Kazuma Murata (59th) were the goal getters for Japan, who were already knocked out of the last-eight race ahead of Friday’s tie.

Navneet Kaur celebrates her goal with skipper Rani Rampal

By virtue of this win, India finished second in Pool A behind Australia with four victories out of five matches. They face Great Britain, who finished third in Pool B, in the quarter-final scheduled on Sunday.

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Australia ended their pool engagements on top with four wins and a draw. Earlier in the day, after goal-less three quarters, which India completely dominated but failed to breach the Irish defence led by goalkeeper Ayeisha McFerran, Navneet finally found the back of the net in the 57th minute to bring smiles on the Indian faces.

Needing a win to keep their hopes alive after three consecutive losses, India had to wait anxiously for 57 minutes despite being the dominant team on display and creating innumerable scoring chances.

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