The Indian hockey team began the London leg of their FIH Pro League 2025-26 campaign with a thrilling 4-3 win over arch-rivals Pakistan at the Lee Valley Hockey & Tennis Centre on Tuesday.
Abhishek (22’), Nilakanta Sharma (24’), Sukhjeet Singh (40’) and Rajinder Singh (52’) were the goal-scorers for India, eighth in the men’s hockey rankings, while Ahmad Nadeem (8”), Abu Mahmood (53’) and Moin Shakeel (60’) netted for world No. 12 Pakistan. India’s Manpreet Singh won the Player of the Match award.
The win saw India move up to seventh in the FIH Hockey Pro League standings with 13 points from as many matches, while the Pakistan hockey team stayed rooted to the bottom as their search for a first victory continues.
The match began with both teams playing cautiously and trading early circle entries. Pakistan earned the first breakthrough in the eighth minute when Ahmad Nadeem capitalised on a penalty corner routine to make it 1-0.
India responded with aggressive attacks but struggled to find the goal-scoring touch.
In the final minute of the first quarter, India won three consecutive penalty corners. However, Pakistan goalkeeper Ali Raza made a fine save against skipper Harmanpreet Singh‘s dragflick, which was the nearest India came to scoring from the back-to-back short corners.
India upped the tempo in the second quarter and were rewarded with an equaliser in the 22nd minute. Dilpreet Singh’s fierce effort was saved by goalkeeper Muneeb Ur Rehman Raza, but Abhishek reacted quickest to slot home the rebound and make it 1-1.
Three minutes later, India earned another penalty corner and Nilakanta Sharma was first to the loose ball, firing it through Raza’s legs to complete the turnaround and give India a 2-1 lead.
Goalkeeper Raza then stood tall for Pakistan later in the quarter, saving scoring attempts from penalty corners off the sticks of Jugraj Singh in the 28th minute and Harmanpreet a shortly after to keep the score 2-1 at half-time.
India stretched their advantage in the 40th minute as Abhishek threaded a fine pass inside the circle for Sukhjeet Singh, who produced a clinical finish to put his side 3-1 ahead.
The final quarter was filled with late drama as Pakistan pushed hard to reduce the deficit with the Indian defence blocking back-to-back penalty corners in the 51st minute.
India’s strikers then launched a swift counter-attack to earn a penalty corner of their own a minute later. In a clever routine, Harmanpreet acted as a decoy, allowing Rajinder to fire the ball past substitute goalkeeper Waqar, which made it 4-1.
Pakistan fought back immediately as captain Abu Mahmood scored from a penalty-corner flick through the legs of Indian goalkeeper Suraj Karkera to make it 4-2.
With just 14 seconds left on the clock, Pakistan’s Moin Shakeel scored on a rebound during a penalty-corner routine to make it 4-3, but India held their nerve in the end to secure a hard-fought win.
India will face England in their next FIH Pro League match on Thursday.
READ MORE: https://www.olympics.com/en/news/fih-pro-league-2025-26-india-vs-pakistan-hockey-match-1-report
