William calnan

Raj Kumar Pal: It was a delightful Sunday for Indian hockey in a noisy atmosphere at the Yves du Manoir Stadium as the Harmanpreet Singh-led side, who reduced to 10 men in the second quarter, defeated Great Britain 4-2 in a thrilling shootout to enter the 2024 Paris Olympics semi-finals.

Ashok Kumar, the former hockey player and son of the legendary Dhyan Chand, was appreciative of the team’s performance in the quarter-finals, which propelled them to enter the semi-finals in successive Olympic games, after winning the bronze medal at Tokyo 2020 event.

“The technical improvement of the players in this team has been remarkable. Because of that, all the matches we have played so far have been in line with our expectations. Our goalkeeper, Sreejesh, our goal scoring machine, Harmanpreet, and the other players who are playing are definitely remarkable. We have to praise them, even if someone doesn’t appreciate them, as yes, they are playing like a team.”