TIL Desk Sports/ TIL Desk Sports/ Rated as strong favourites for the title, hosts India started their campaign on a resounding note spanking Canada 4-0 in their opening Pool D match of the Junior Hockey World Cup at the Major Dhyan Chand Astroturf Stadium, here today. India were by far the better side on display and scored through Mandeep Singh (35th minute), Harmanpreet Singh (46th), Varun Kumar (60th) and Ajit Pandey (66th) to garned full three points from the encounter.
There was always uncertainity about the conduct of the match late in the evening due to dense fog, which forced the International Hockey Federation to start the game 15 minutes early. Going by form and expectations, India were considered as overwhelming favourites against Canada and the hosts started on expected note even though they were little shaky and nervous to start with.
But as time progressed, the Indian colts got their acts together and started attacking the Canadian defence relentlessly. Canada, who has 13 Indian origin players in its 18-member squad, on the other hand were pretty happy to sit back and defend and rely on counter attacks to surprise the Indians.
The hosts had the first chance in the fourth minute but Armaan Qureshi reverse hit from close range struck the side netting. India earned two back-to-back penalty corners in the 12th minute but on both occasion Harmanpreet Singh s tries were saved by Canadian custodian Iqwinder Gill.
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