India whitewash BD

SAVAR, Aug 9 (UNB): Visiting Indian Hockey Team whitewashed Bangladesh 3-0 in the three-match international friendly hockey series beating hosts by 3-1 goal in the last match at Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishthan (BKSP) here Saturday.

BKSP DG Brig Gen Emadul Haque was the chief guest in the day's closing match and later he distributed the prizes.

Earlier, the touring Indian side beat Bangladesh by 2-1 goal in the first match Wednesday and won the series with one match to spare outplaying the hosts by 5-1 goal in the 2nd match Friday at the same venue.

In the day's match, Juvraj Walmiki put the Indian side ahead in the very 6th minute by a field goal (1-0) while Gurjinder Singh doubled the Indian margin in the 38th minute from a penalty corner (2-0).

Pushkar Khisha Memo pulled the margin back for Bangladesh in the 56th minute by a filed goal (2-1) while Indian captain Vikramkanth sealed the fate of the match scoring the 3rd goal in the 57th minute (3-1).

Bangladesh custodian Ashim Gope performed a brilliant job under the bar and was adjudged man of the match.

After the match, Pakistani coach of Bangladesh team Naveed Alam said, "We want to find out our loopholes and lacking from the series…, our finishing was not up to the mark….we've to work more on penalty corner and team combination".

Bangladesh captain Sarwar Hossain expressed his satisfaction over the team performance said, "We earned huge experiences from the series… but we've to increase our stamina and to play practice matches regularly for improvement."

The match over, Indian captain Vikramkanth told newsmen, "Bangladesh team has improved than before … but they have to improve further in all the three departments playing more international matches".

Bangladesh Hockey Federation (BHF) invited the Indian hockey team to tour Bangladesh as part of their preparation for the next month's World Hockey League in Dhaka and as well as for the Asian Games Hockey in the South Korean city of Incheon on September 19 to October 4.