Bangladesh national hockey team ended their three-match friendship hockey series against India with a 3-1 defeat in the last game played at BKSP yesterday. The visitors had already secured the series on last Friday after they won the second match. Yesterday’s victory meant a comprehensive 3-0 series win for the visitors.
The young Bangladesh side started the game brightly and produced some speedy counter attacks with a scoring chance in the second minute after a fine work by Rabbi Salekin Rocky and Milon Hossain before a defensive error from Belal gifted India the lead after just six minutes into the clock.
Apart from that error by Belal, the hosts defended well throughout the game and didn’t allow the opponents to score anymore from five penalty corners in the opening half.
However, drag-flicker Gurjinder Singh doubled the visitors’ lead from a penalty corner in the 38th minute before national striker Puskor Khiso Mimo pulled one back in the 58th minute after connecting a hit of Milon Hossain. Bikram Kanta scored another for the visitors in the next minute to seal the victory for the Indians.
However, despite not winning a single game and scoring only three goals to India’s ten, the home side can still take positives from the series, believes Bangladesh’s Pakistani coach Naveed Alam.
“The scoreline (2-1) in the first game was good but I was not satisfied with the team’s performance. The boys played better in the second game but the result was unexpected. The last game increased the fighting spirit of the players,” said Naveed after the game.
Bangladesh will now host the first round matches of World Hockey League in the first week of September in Dhaka.
Bangladesh became the champions in the first round in the last edition of World Hockey League. After that Bangladesh will take part in the 17th Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea which begins from September 19 of this year.
