Indian hockey

The tour will officially kick off from December 5 with Chief Minister of Odisha Naveen Patnaik handing over the trophy to Hockey India president Dilip Tirkey in Bhubaneswar. The trophy will travel across 12 states and one Union territory, before returning to Bhubaneswar. The 21-day tour will see the trophy.

Home-side who eventually came out on top with a dominating performance that saw Eddie Ockenden complete 400 international caps for Australia. This win comes at the back of their 5-4 win in the first match on Saturday, thus taking a 2-0 lead in the five-match Series. Goals were scored by Harmanpreet Singh (3', 60'), Hardik Singh (25') and Raheel Mohammed (36') for India while Blake Govers (12', 27', 53'), Jack Welch (17', 24'), Jacob Anderson (48') and Jake Whetton (49') scored for the hosts.

The event, scheduled to be held from January 13-29 next year will witness 16 teams slug it out for the coveted trophy. The event will be held at the iconic Kalinga Hockey Stadium and the newly-built Birsa Munda Stadium in Rourkela. On the occasion, Hockey India president, Dilip Tirkey, said, "The final preparations for the World Cup are underway. We are eagerly waiting to welcome all the participating teams and hockey lovers from around the globe to be part of this historic event.

Hockey India (HI) on Wednesday named a 20-member squad for the event, to be held in Valencia, Spain from December 10-17, including experienced midfielder Navjot Kaur who returns to the national setup after missing the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022 due to Covid-19.

Having won twice against New Zealand, the third team in this cluster of matches, but losing 2-3 to the Redsticks on October 30, India went into the match with revenge on their mind. But were lucky to escape with a 2-2 draw in the game of two halves in which Spain missed at least six-seven good scoring opportunities. Pathak himself pulled off five good saves. However, the hosts failed to capitalise on a 2-0 lead, conceded the advantage, and allowed Spain to control the pace and dictate terms in a dominant last 20 minutes of the match

Adit, winner of the first two legs of the India series, completed a treble in the U-9 category. Veeramachaneni was one of the five players in the Boys section to complete a hat-trick of wins. Two other players in the Girls section also completed a similar feat of three wins in three starts.

Having opened their FIH Pro League 2022-23 campaign with a 4-3 win against the same New Zealand squad, scored twice through drag-flicker Harmanpreet Singh and Karthi Selvam while Raj Kumar Pal, Sukhjeet Singh, and Jugraj Singh contributed one goal each to India's score. Simon Child, Sam Lane, Jack Smith and Nic Woods scored for New Zealand in the 11-goal thriller.

Spain looked stronger from the start of the game with more ball possession and with their forwards scoring two goals in the first half. Although India made a comeback in the dying minutes, Marc Reyne scored the winner in the 57th minute to win it for Spain. Spain was particularly dangerous on the flanks as they created more attacks from the sides.

Australia controlled proceedings in the early exchanges while captain Uttam Singh and Boby Singh Dhami tried to push India forward. The efforts paid off as India broke the deadlock through Sudeep Chirmako (14th minute). India went into the first break leading 1-0.

It was a lionhearted performance from the Indians as they went ahead early in the first quarter but were staring down the barrel as the Black Sticks scored once in the second quarter and twice in the third to make it 3-1. The Indians played attacking hockey with a lot of cohesion and defended superbly as they came back despite being a man down for 10 minutes in the third quarter.