Azlan Shah Hockey: India look to dominate Canada

Bereaved Manpreet Singh (left) returned on Friday night after his father’s funeral to join his teammates ahead of their round robin match against Canada.

Bolstered by the return of midfielder Manpreet Singh, India will seek to dominate hard-tackling Canada on Sunday and boost their standing in the 25th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament.

The bereaved Manpreet returned on Friday night after his father’s funeral to join his teammates at a training session, giving coach Roelant Oltmans some options of tackling the rivals, who on Saturday overtook India in the round-robin league standings.

Canada defeated Japan 3-1 to take their points tally to four from three outings, having lost 1-3 to Pakistan and holding defending champions New Zealand to a 1-1 draw.

India have three points from two matches, having defeated Japan 2-1 in their opening outing and then losing 1-5 to world champions Australia.

Manpreet brings stability to India’s game-plan as he often takes up centre-half duties from captain Sardar Singh when the team are seeking to dominate. When under pressure, Manpreet is adept at playing a deep defender’s role and falls back to be the third full-back.

The news of his father’s demise reached Manpreet just hours before India’s opening fixture on Wednesday. He left for home just as the team stepped on to the turf wearing black arm bands and observed a minute’s silence.

The Canadians have often proved to be troublesome for India as they pack the defence and bank on quick counter-attacks.

Defending against the quick turnovers has been problem for India and Oltmans is seeking to teach the young players ways to plug the gaps when falling back to defend on counters.

Oltmans was on Saturday seen observing the Canadians from the sidelines, trying to get acquainted with the opponents, whom India do not get to play often. India’s last encounter with Canada was a year ago here when they prevailed 5-3.

This is the first time the team under Oltmans will be taking on Canada, who are no longer Pan-American champions, but are among the four teams at this tournament to have qualified for the Olympics at Rio de Janeiro.

New Zealand outplay Pakistan On Saturday, Nic Woods converted two penalty corners to hand defending champions New Zealand a 5-3 victory over Pakistan in the round-robin league here.

Back to winning habit after being held to draws by Malaysia and Canada in their initial two outings, New Zealand took their points tally for five, while Pakistan have three points from two matches. Pakistan had beaten Canada 3-1 in their opening fixture.

Live on STAR Sports 1 India vs Canada from 6 pm