New Delhi: India registered a hard-fought 4-3 win over arch-rivals Pakistan in their FIH Hockey Pro League 2025–26 game in London.
The victory propelled India to seventh in the standings.
India started confidently, but it was Pakistan who took the lead through Ahmad Nadeem’s goal in the eighth minute.
Abhishek managed to beat Pakistani goalkeeper Ali Raza in the 22nd minute and levelled the scores for India, and two minutes later Nilakanta Sharma made it 2-1.
In the third quarter, India struck another goal courtesy of Sukhjeet Singh. It was his 40th international goal. Rajinder Singh’s goal in the 52nd minute helped India extend the lead.
However, Pakistan bounced back and netted two quick goals, but that was not enough to save them from defeat.
India’s Manpreet Singh was adjudged the Player of the Match.
“It was a good game today, but I think we could have done much better because we got really good chances but couldn’t convert them into goals, but we still won. Now we have to look at our next game, which is against England, and definitely we will play much better than this,” he said after the victory.
Other results: Argentina 2, Spain 3; Australia 2, Netherlands 0
