Cape Town, 22 Jan: Skipper Harmanpreet scored a brace as Indian men’s hockey team thrashed France 4-0 to begin its campaign in the Four-Nation Tournament on a rousing note here on Monday.
The Indian defence produced a resolute perfor-mance with France failing to get past veteran PR Sreejesh and Krishan Bahadur Pathak at the goalpost.
Harmanpreet (13th, 26th minutes) converted two pen-alty corners while Lalit Upa-dhyay (42nd) and vice-captain Hardik Singh (49) were the other goal-getters for India.
India broke the deadlock two minutes from the first quarter through Harman-preet’s powerful dragflick. He doubled the lead in the second quarter, converting another penalty corner.
Lalit made the scoreline 3-0 after the change of ends when he found the back of the French goal through a penalty corner variation.
In the final quarter, Hardik extended the lead to take the game beyond France’s reach by scoring a finely executed field goal.
The week-long tourna-ment features France, the Netherlands, India and hosts South Africa. India will face France again in their second match on Wednesday, followed by a match against hosts South Africa on Friday and then against the Nether-lands on Sunday. (PTI)