India beat South Africa 5-1 to win FIH Series Finals
India is the champion of the 2019 FIH Series Finals, Bhubaneswar
Champion Indian team lived up to the expectations and trounced South Africa 5-1 in the summit clash to win the FIH Series Finals hockey tournament on Saturday.
Coming into the tournament as favorites, world no.5 India played like champions and remained unbeaten throughout the tournament.
Dragflickers Varun Kumar (2’, 49’) and Harmanpreet Singh (11’, 25’) scored a brace each, while Vivek Sagar Prasad (35th) was the other goal scorer for India.
South Africa’s lone goal was scored by Richard Pautz in the 53rd minute.
India and South Africa have already qualified for the final round of the Olympic qualifiers before Saturday’s summit clash.
India secured their first penalty corner as early as in the second minute and Varun made no mistake in converting the opportunity into goal.
In the 11th minute, India got another penalty corner and this time Harmanpreet slammed home to make the scoreline 2-0 in favour of the hosts.
Indian team awarded a penalty stroke and Harmanpreet made no mistake to make the scoreline 3-0.
The blues extended their lead when Vivek Sagar Prasad scored from close range
Varun scored from a variation to make the scoreline 5-0 in the home team’s favor.
