India take unassailable 4-0 series lead

Surrey:

Sandeep Singh continued his rampaging form to score twice as India beat Canada 3-1 to take take an unassailable 4-0 lead in the seven-match hockey Test series at Tamanawis Park.

Sandeep struck his goals in the 35th and 67th minutes after Gurwinder Chandi opened the scoring for India in the 29th minute yesterday.

David Jameson pulled one back for Canada in the 41st minute.

Canada began aggressively winning a penalty corner when Mark Pearson was stick-fouled by Sandeep. However, Scott Tupper's flick did not have the sting.

India, on the other hand, were cautious to start with and committed numerous unforced errors.

Forwards Prabhjot Singh, captain Rajpal Singh, Sarwanjit Singh and Gurwinder Chandi were off colour lacking fluency and messing up the traps.

Both teams earned two penalty corners in the first quarter but could not push the scoreline as Sandeep and Raghunath were off target for India while Wayne Fernandes' flick was saved by India goalkeeper Adrian D'souza.

India opened their account with a sortie led by Sardar Singh who strode with great pace in the midfield to set up Prabhjot. The Batala veteran tapped to Chandi who beat Carter in the bars with a wrong foot shot in the 29th minute.