FIH Series Finals: India trounce South Africa in final

India thrashed South Africa by 5-1 in final of FIH Series Finals at  Kalinga Stium here on Saturday.

India dominated South Africa throughout as former did t take much time to score opening goal of match. India's Varun Kumar scored first goal of match from a penalty corner and helped India take a le over South Africa.

However, India did t stop re as y ded ar goal which put immense pressure on opponents. second goal was scored by Harmanpreet Singh and he too scored goal from a penalty corner.

RE | World Cup 2019 | Key Players To Watch Out For In India Vs Pakistan Ineluctable Clash

Singh, who was later named as man of match, displayed a scintillating form in match as he ded ar goal to India's tally through a penalty stroke. Consequently, India shined in first half as it concluded on a score of 3-0.

second half also started in a similar manner as India scored ar goal, taking a massive four-goal le over South Africa. Kumar n scored fifth goal for Indian side from a penalty corner. After match was alrey slipped off South Africa's hands, y mand to score ir first goal as Richard Pautz scored a goal from a penalty corner.

Despite registering a massive win in final, India's he coach Graham Reid believes that re is still room for improvement and is looking forward to Olympic Games' test event in Tokyo in August.

"It was a really interesting tournament. re are always things which we can improve. I think that areas that we worked on in last 2-3 months, we'll be continuing. boys will w have a couple of weeks off, spend time with ir families and recharge ir batteries. n we have a really hard month in July and we go to Olympic Games' test event in Tokyo in August. It will be a busy period," Reid said.

Whereas South Africa's He coach Garreth Ewing said: "First, we'll take from this tournament a step to next round. It was really good for us to spend some time toger as a team. first couple of games were tough but we progressed nicely, n we found our rhythm and we were very competitive and really happy to play against India in final. We lost to a very good team tonight."

Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore  former Youth Affairs and Sports Minister congratulated team and wish m luck for Olympic Qualifiers;