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Narrow win for India

K. Keerthivasan

Rajpal tilts the scales

Raghunath, Dilip Tirkey also scored for India
Belgium’s captain Van Den Black was outstanding

—Photo: S.R. Raghunathan

SUPERB STRIKE: Rajpal Singh (second from left) netted the winner for India.

CHENNAI: In a fleeting moment of brilliance, Rajpal Singh executed a blinder of a shot — outstanding it was both for its anticipation and deception. The backhander tilted the scales in favour of India in the third Test match against Belgium at the SDAT-Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium here on Monday.

Making the defender look like a kid lost in a park, Rajpal took possession of the ball and turned it around to unleash a reverse flick. The pivotal goal that emerged four minutes before the hooter enabled India edge out the visitor 3-2 and take a 2-0 lead in the five-match series.

Gritty display

Certainly, it can be argued that Belgium put up a gritty display. Its defence was above board; man-to-man marking made sense. Especially, its interceptions and clearance hardly gave room for India’s skilful forwards an opportunity or breathing space.

Nevertheless, the usual zip associated with the forwards was all evident even early in the first session. Shivender Singh, Gurbaj Singh and Rajpal created the buzz in the forwardline with their speed and dribbles. However, it did look at certain times that the players spent too much time with the ball.

Five minutes into the first half, Charles Vandeweghe took the host by surprise by neatly deflecting a cross from Patrice Houssein, whose work in the midfield was praiseworthy. His passes helped set up quite a few interesting possibilities.

Drawing level

It required Raghunath to breathe life into the match. Introduced with hardly 10 minutes for the break, Raghunath pushed one past the young goalkeeper Vincent Vanash.

Penalty corner conversions has been a hot topic in the series. India has not covered itself with glory in this department. Dilip Tirkey finally found the target off the team’s fourth corner (it had six in total).

Belgium kept attacking with renewed vigour. Jerome Dekeyser’s reverse flick took custodian Bharat Chetri by surprise. The moment he took the ball inside the circle, Jerome did not waste any time. Thierry Renar, as was seen in the earlier match, did a neat job in the deep defence.

Captain Thomas Van Den Black, who missed the second match, made amends by doing a fine job in the defence. It could have been a well-earned draw for Belgium had it not been for Rajpal’s brilliance.

Tuesday is a rest day. The fourth Test is slated for Wednesday.

The result: India 3 (Raghunath 1, Dilip Tirkey 1, Rajpal Singh 1) bt Belgium 2 (Charles Vandeweghe 1, Jerome Dekeyser 1).

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