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At FIH Odisha Hockey Men's World Cup 2018, Bhubaneswar, India

Quarter Finals
India l The Netherlands 1-2 (1-1)
Goal Scorers - Akashdeep Singh (IND) 12' PC and Thierry Brinkman (NED) 15', Mink van der Weerden (NED) 50' PC

India's wait for the World Cup medal continues after 43 yrs ... They lost in a close match against the Dutch side ... The Indians started well scoring the 1st goal in the 12th minute but the Dutch side immediately responded scoring in 2 minutes to equalized before the end of the first quarter ... After that, both teams failed to score in the next two quarters ... The Dutch side was looking more superior but the Indians managed to keep the pressure on them ... In the 4th quarter, the Dutch side took a lead after the penalty corner conversion in the 50th minute ... Immediately Amit Rohidas made an unnecessary infringement on the Dutch player after hitting with a stick on his hand ... He received the yellow card so the Indians played last 10 mins with only 10 players ... We tried hard and earned penalty corner and saved one without a goalkeeper on the field ... But over players failed to score despite multiple circle penetrations and the Dutch defended well for completing the victory.

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At FIH Odisha Hockey Men's World Cup 2018, Bhubaneswar, India

Pool C
India bt Canada 5-1 (1-0)
Goal Scorers - Harmanpreet Singh (IND) 12' PC, Chinglensana Kangujam (IND) 46', Lalit Upadhyay (IND) 47' and 57', Amit Rohidas (IND) 51' PC and Floris van Son (CAN) 39'

India qualifies for the quarter-final after winning the Pool C ... In their final match, they required a win over Canada and in end, they gave a dominating display for winning comfortably with 5-1 score ... We started well and scored through the penalty corner in the first quarter, but after dominating the second quarter we failed to score due to poor finishing in the circle ... The Canadian took advantage of our poor finishing and equalized in the third quarter ... In the fourth quarter, we came out all guns blazing and gave one of the best attacking performance ... We scored two goals in the first 2 minutes to restore the lead ... Then an excellent execution of the penalty corner drill to increase the lead and won this match comfortably ... We need to wait for knowing our opponent from the cross-over match ... But most probably we will be facing the Netherlands.

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At FIH Odisha Hockey Men's World Cup 2018, Bhubaneswar, India

Pool C
India dw Belgium 2-2 (0-1)
Goal Scorers - Harmanpreet Singh (IND) 39' PS, Simranjeet Singh (IND) 47' and Alexander Hendrickx (BEL) 8' PC, Simon Gougnard (BEL) 56'

The Indians conceded a late goal and drew with the higher ranked Belgian team ... This was deserving result considering the dominating performance by the Belgian team in the first half ... We were lucky that the Belgian side managed a single goal ... From the third quarter, we lifted our game and attacked the Belgian goal ... We equalized through the penalty stroke and in the fourth quarter, Simranjeet gave a lead through a field goal ... After that, we tried to defend but the Belgian equalized when 4 mins were remaining ... After that, both teams failed to score but well fought a 2-all draw.

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At FIH Odisha Hockey Men's World Cup 2018, Bhubaneswar, India

Pool C
India bt South Africa 5-0 (2-0)
Goal Scorers - Mandeep Singh (IND) 10' PC, Akashdeep Singh (IND) 12', Simranjeet Singh (IND) 43' and 46' PC, Lalit Upadhyay (IND) 45'

We started with a comfortable win against South Africans, but our next match against Belgium will be crucial to deciding the Pool winner.

My observations from this match were, our game looked dis-oriented ... Usual cases of losing the possession, failing to trap the ball, unnecessary hits inside the D and missed opportunities.

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At FIH Odisha Hockey Men's World Cup 2018, India

The Indian Squad
Goalkeepers: PR Sreejesh, Krishan Bahadur Pathak
Defenders: Harmanpreet Singh, Birendra Lakra, Varun Kumar, Kothajit Singh, Surender Kumar, Amit Rohidas
Midfielders: Manpreet Singh (captain), Chinglensana Singh (vice-captain), Nilakanta Sharma, Hardik Singh, Sumit
Forwards: Akashdeep Singh, Mandeep Singh, Dilpreet Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, Simranjeet Singh

The Indian squad for the Men's World Cup is announced ... The seniors like Ramandeep and Sunil have been left out on the fitness and Rupinder Pal Singh has been left out on his poor form ... Some selections are dodgy considering repeated poor performance from Akashdeep and Mandeep ... In the defense also we have a better option than Amit Rohidas, now penalty corner conversion solely depends upon Harmanpreet and he is not convincing with his PC conversion rate ... on the midfielder position also we look weak ... Despite this, hoping for a better performance from our team.

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At Women's World Cup 2018, London, England

Quarter Final
India 1 Ireland 0-0 (1-3 Penalty shoot-out)

Indian women missed a huge opportunity for creating history as they lost close quarter-final against Irish women ... Both teams failed to score in 60 minutes, but Indian women failed to raise their game for this big occasion ... On the field, Irish team was looking more composed and structured with their game, but we struggled to play our regular game ... In the penalty shoot-out, we failed to score on our first three hits and Irish women converted their last three penalties after missing first 2 ... Overall Irish women were deserving winner of the match.

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At Women's World Cup 2018, London, England

Cross-Over Knockout
India bt Italy 3-0 (1-0)
Goal Scorers - Lalremsiami (IND) 9', Neha Goyal (IND) 45' PC, Vandana Katariya (IND) 55' PC

Indian women in the quarter-final of World Cup beating Italian women in dominating style ... In the quarter, we are facing Irish team, with whom we lost in the Pool game .. We need to raise our game against Irish team.

In this match, our women were in the control from the beginning ... We took a lead through Lalremsiami field goal and afterward we missed few chances ... We kept the lead at the half-time and after that, we continued with our dominance ... In the last 15 minutes, we managed 2 more goals to give little indication of our solid performance.

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At Women's World Cup 2018, London, England

Pool B
India dw USA 1-1 (0-1)
Goal Scorers - Rani Rampal (IND) 31' PC and Margaux Paolino (USA) 13'

Indian women secured a much-needed draw and capture a single point, which helped them for qualifying for knock-out stage ... American women took a lead in the first quarters ... Our women tried hard but failed to score until the half-time, they missed four penalty corners ... After the half-time, they earned a fifth penalty corner and Rani scored with a direct hit ... After that, both teams failed to convert the chances ... In this match, once again our defense was credible ... In the cross-over match, we are facing Italy for the place in the quarter-final.

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At Women's World Cup 2018, London, England

Pool B
India l Ireland 0-1 (0-1)
Goal Scorers - Anna O'Flanagan (IRL) 13' PC

Yesterday Indian women faced a surprising loss against lowly ranked Irish women ... Irish women converted penalty corner in the first quarter ... Other hand Indian women missed numerous chances ... They managed 27 circle penetrations and grabbed 7 penalty corners but failed to take advantage of it ... In their final league match, they needs a draw against American women to qualify for knock-out ... An unnecessary tough proposition due to lackluster performance.

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At Women's World Cup 2018, London, England

Pool B
India dw England 1-1 (1-0)
Goal Scorers - Neha Goyal (IND) 25' and Lily Owsley (ENG) 54' PC

Indian women started their campaign on a positive note ... They managed to hold WR #2 and host British women in 1-all draw ... In this match British women were dominating, they had a big possession, more D penetrations and had 9 penalty corners ... Indian took a lead in the 2nd quarter through Neha Goyal ... British women tried hard but they were failing to convert chances ... They converted on the 9th penalty corner through Owsley ... In last 7 minutes they tried hard but our women managed to hold and grab a point.

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At FIH Rankings - July 2018,

FIH Men's Hero World Ranking

After finishing second in just concluded Champions Trophy we have climbed to the fifth position in the newly updated FIH ranking with 1484 points and Germany is in the sixth place with 1456 points ... Indian women retain their 10th place with 1040 points.

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At Rabobank Hockey Men's Champions Trophy 2018, Breda, Netherlands

Final
India l Australia 1-1 (0-1) 1-3 Penalty Shoot-off
Goal Scorers - Vivek Prasad (IND) 42' PC and Blake Govers (AUS) 24' PC

Again we lost the Champions trophy final on penalty shoot-off against Australia ... In this match, we matched Aussie game plan and really played well ... Our attacks were lot more potent that Aussie but our forwarders failed to convert chances ... On this dry surface we struggled with penalty corners ... Aussie converted on the 1st penalty corner on Sreejesh's mistake ... Aussie defended well but Vivek Prasad scored a terrific goal in the late of the third quarter ... We again missed many opportunities in the fourth ... In penalty shoot-off, Aussie took early control with 0-2 lead ... Our pair struggled to pass Aussie keeper but Sreejesh failed to save Aussie shots.

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At Rabobank Hockey Men's Champions Trophy 2018, Breda, Netherlands

India dw Netherlands 1-1 (0-0)
Goal Scorers - Mandeep Singh (IND) 47' PC and Thierry Brinkman (NED) 55'

The title match of the Men’s Champions Trophy 2018 will be a replay of the 2016 final as India booked their place in Sunday’s gold medal match against Australia, after securing an all-important draw against host nation the Netherlands ... In this match, both sides showing full commitment in the race to secure a place in the final ... Th first 3 quarters remained goalless, though the Netherlands were better team in the third quarter ... Indian scored through Mandeep when he scored on rebound on the penalty corner attempt ... The Dutch side scored a deserving goal when 5 mins were remaining.

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At Rabobank Hockey Men's Champions Trophy 2018, Breda, Netherlands

India dw Belgium 1-1 (1-0)
Goal Scorers - Harmanpreet Singh (IND) 10' PC and Loïck Luypaert (BEL) 59' PC

Not a perfect match for us as we struggled overall ... Harmanpreet scored in the first quarter but we failed to control it ... After half-time Belgium kept pressure on us and earned 9 penalty corners ... They converted when only 2 mins were remaining, well deserving equalizer for them.

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At Rabobank Hockey Men's Champions Trophy 2018, Breda, Netherlands

India l Australia 2-3 (1-2)
Goal Scorers - Varun Kumar (IND) 10', Harmanpreet Singh (IND) 58' PC and Lachlan Sharp (AUS) 6', Tom Craig (AUS) 15' PC, Trent Mitton (AUS) 33'

Australia have moved to the top of the standings at the Men’s Rabobank Hockey Champions Trophy 2018 after a narrow 3-2 victory against India ... In this match, we gave a fighting performance ... We had ample opportunities to score but failed to convert it ... In the dying moments, we had a last minute penalty corner, with Harmanpreet seeing his powerful flick brilliantly charged down by Jeremy Hayward to seal victory for Australia.

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At Rabobank Hockey Men's Champions Trophy 2018, Breda, Netherlands

India bt Argentina 2-1 (2-1)
Goal Scorers - Harmanpreet Singh (IND) 17' PC, Mandeep Singh (IND) 28' and Gonzalo Peillat (ARG) 30' PC

India produced another clinical and clean performance to beat WR #2 Argentina ... This was a big upset by our team ... We avoided making stupid errors inside the D while defending and only conceded one penalty corner in the match ... All goals scored in the second quarters, but more importantly we matched an intensity of Argentine players on the field ... Next, we will be facing WR #1 Australia on Tuesday.

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At Rabobank Hockey Men's Champions Trophy 2018, Breda, Netherlands

India bt Pakistan 4-0 (1-0)
Goal Scorers - Ramandeep Singh (IND) 26', Dilpreet Singh (IND) 54', Mandeep Singh (IND) 57', Lalit Upadhyay (IND) 60'

India started with a confident win against Pakistan ... Both teams had a chances but we defended better ... In late of the second period we took a lead through Ramandeep ... Then in the fourth quarter, Dilpreet double the lead ... In last few minutes when Oltmans gambled by taking off their keeper, we managed to score two goals through Mandeep and Lalit for giving a big margin win ... Tomorrow we are facing WR #2 Argentina.

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At Men’s Hockey Champions Trophy Breda 2018, the Netherlands

Goalkeepers - PR Sreejesh (C), Krishan Pathak
Defenders - Harmanpreet Singh, Varun Kumar, Birendra Lakra, Amit Rohidas, Surender Kumar, Jarmanpreet Singh
Midfielders - Sardar Singh, Manpreet Singh, Chinglensana Singh Kangujam, Vivek Sagar Prasad
Forwards - SV Sunil, Ramandeep Singh, Akashdeep Singh, Mandeep Singh, Dilpreet Singh, Sumit Kumar (Jr)

The 18-member Indian Men’s Team which will take part in the final edition of the prestigious Rabobank Men’s Hockey Champions Trophy Breda 2018 in the Netherlands starting June 23 ... In last edition, we finished on the 2nd position, that was our podium finish after 34 years ... The team will be led by ace goalkeeper PR Sreejesh but some interesting addition and ommission ... Birendra Lakra, Ramdeep Singh and Sardar Singh r back in the team ... Rupinder Pal Singh, Kothajit, Gurinder Singh, Sumit, Gurjant Singh and Lalit Upadhyay removed from the team ... Happy to see Jarmanpreet Singh is given chance ... Last year he finished his 2 yrs. ban after his samples tested positive for 19-norandrosterone, a metabolite of nandrolone (an anabolic steroid) in February 2015 ... Jarmanpreet had contested that the failed test was a result of an injection administered by a medical practitioner in his home town, Amritsar, for lower back pain in December 2014.

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At Odisha Hockey Men's World Cup 2018, Bhubaneswar, India

Pool A
Argentina (WR #2), Spain (WR #8), New Zealand (WR #9) and France (WR# 18)

Pool B
Australia (WR #1), England (WR #7), Ireland (WR #10) and China (WR #17)

Pool C
Belgium (WR #3), India (WR #6), Canada (WR #11) and South Africa (WR #15)

Pool D
The Netherlands (WR #4), Germany (WR #5), Malaysia (WR #12) and Pakistan (WR #13)

Indian Pool Matches Schedule
Against South Africa - 28th November 2018
Against Belgium - 2nd December 2018
Against Canada - 8th December 2018

Men's World Cup 2018 will be played between November 28th to December 16th 2018 at Bhubaneswar ... A decent draw for us as we r in Group C with Belgium, Canada and South Africa.

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At the Gold Coast 2018 - XXI Commonwealth Games, Gold Coast, Australia

Men's Pool A
Australia (WR #2), New Zealand (WR #8), Canada (WR #11), South Africa (WR #15), Scotland (WR #23)

Men's Pool B
India (WR #6), England (WR #7), Pakistan (WR #12), Malaysia (WR #13), Wales (WR #24)

Indian Men's Matches Schedule
India vs Pakistan - 7th April 2018
India vs Wales - 8th April 2018
India vs Malaysia - 10th April 2018
India vs England - 11th April 2018

The Pools and match schedule have been released for men's event ... India is in the Pool B and will be playing their first match against Pakistan ... The top 2 ranked teams from each pool will advance to Semifinals.

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At the Gold Coast 2018 - XXI Commonwealth Games, Gold Coast, Australia

Women's Pool A
England (WR #2), India (WR #10), South Africa (WR #14), Malaysia (WR #22), Wales (WR #26)

Women's Pool B
Australia (WR #4), New Zealand (WR #5), Scotland (WR #18), Canada (WR #21), Ghana (WR #30)

Indian Women's Matches Schedule
India vs Wales - 5th April 2018
India vs Malaysia - 6th April 2018
India vs England - 8th April 2018
India vs South Africa - 10th April 2018

The Pools and match schedule have been released for Commonwealth ... Indian women will received a chance of facing WR #2 England women's team in their World Cup preparation ... As both teams r in the same group in World Cup also ... The top 2 ranked teams from each pool will advance to Semifinals.