After India’s shocking defeat in the tournament opener, the hosts had come out all guns blazing and beaten Canada 13-1 in their Junior Hockey World Cup tie on Thursday. No doubt it was a brilliant overall performance at the Kalinga Stadium but what was most impressive was how India’s drag-flickers performed and all eyes will be on them again as India take on Poland on Saturday looking to book their place in the quarterfinals.
They won a total of 11 penalty corners against Canada and converted six of them. Most importantly there were four different drag-flickers which in chief coach Graham Reid’s words is ‘quite a luxury’.
Sanjay and Sharda Nand Tiwari scored two each while the remaining two were scored by Araijeet Singh Hundal and Abhisek Lakra. Even in their first match against France on Wednesday, India had won eight penalty corners and converted three of them but on that day, all of the conversions were by Sanjay.
“It’s nice to have penalty corner specialists. That way, even with the substitutions, you can always have two of them on the field and that gives you a lot of options,” said Reid during the pre-match press conference on Friday.
Apart from the coaches helping them out with the various aspects of drag flicking, Sanjay has also spoken to India senior team drag-flicker Harmanpreet Singh in order to better his skills and it seems it has been working out well so far.
While penalty corner conversions have been remarkable, players like Maninder and Uttam Singh have caught the attention.
