India beats South Africa 5-0 in Hockey World Cup 2018

India started their Hockey World Cup 2018 campaign with a 5-0 win against South Africa in their first Pool C encounter at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar. The Manpreet Singh-led side dominated South Africa in all the four quarters of the game, as Mandeep Singh opened the scoring in the tenth minute of the first quarter. And as Akashdeep Singh scored India’s second goal in the 12th minute of the same quarter, South Africa lost their steam, eventually letting India score three more in the entire match.

The attacking mindset, which Coach Harendra Singh had advocated before the start of the tournament, was visible on the field as the Indian players were not letting the ball slip out of their possession.

India was leading 2-0 by the end of the first half of the match. In the initial stages of the third quarter, India missed a couple of chances. Nevertheless, India made a dominating comeback as they completely destroyed the winning hopes of South Africa by scoring two back-to-back goals in the 43rd and 45th minute of the match.