Indian colts warm-up with three victories

BERLIN, AUG 22: The Indian junior team was in fine nick winning all their friendly matches including one against hosts Poland as they ope...

BERLIN, AUG 22: The Indian junior team was in fine nick winning all their friendly matches including one against hosts Poland as they open their campaign in the eight-nation International Hockey Tournament (under-21) in Poznan against Egypt tomorrow.

The Indian team, which reached Poznan on Tuesday after playing friendly matches against Holland and Belgium at Amstelveen, the Netherlands, defeated three of the teams participating in the week-long tournament.

Centre-forward Prabhjot Singh scored a brace each in India’s 4-0 and 6-2 victories against Scotland and Poland respectively. While Asad Khan and Gursevak Singh added one each in the match against Scotland, the two along with Len Aiyappa and Bipin Fernandes struck one goal apiece in the match against Poland.

Both Scotland and Poland are in Pool B with South Korea and England. India, Germany, Belgium and Egypt are in Pool A.

India swamped the Belgium under-21 team 7-0 in a friendly clash in Amstelveen before coming to Poznan. They were thrashed 0-5and 1-6 by Holland, which is not taking part in the Poznan tournament.

Germany meet Belgium in the first match of the tournament tomorrow with the final and the position matches slated from August 29.

India play Belgium and Germany on August 25 and 26 respectively in their other two league matches.