Determined to end on a win: Manpreet Singh

Manpreet Singh

India's Olympic bronze medal-winning captain Manpreet Singh admitted on Thursday that while his team enjoyed their goal glut against the Japanese, it will be a different ball game against the gritty South Africans in their 9th to 12th place classification match on Saturday. India beat Japan 8-0 on Thursday with skipper Harmanpreet Singh (45th and 58th minute), Abhishek (35th and 43rd minute), Mandeep Singh (32nd), Sukhjeet Singh (59th) and Manpreet (58th) being among the goals.

"South Africa have some good players and we cannot afford to give them any scoring opportunities. Today, we created many chances in the first two quarters, but also made an equal number of mistakes and that's the reason we could not score in the first half. But in the second, we did well, both in field goals and penalty corners, and that encouraged our players to step forward for a high press and we got so many goals," Manpreet told mid-day on Thursday night.

Also read: Hockey World Cup 2023: India rout Japan 8-0!

Earlier in the day, South Africa, who suffered three out of three defeats in their pool matches, registered a thumping 6-3 win in their 9th to 16th classification match against Malaysia, who, earlier in the tournament, beat New Zealand, who in turn, dumped India out in the Crossover stage.

However, a confidence boost for skipper Harmanpreet, who beat the goalkeeper for the first time in the tournament off his drag flicks, should keep the hosts in good stead. "Harmanpreet has not had a good tournament, but we had faith in him and with these two goals, he has got his confidence back. We were all hurting after losing to New Zealand, but are determined to win our classification matches because the tournament is not yet over for us," Manpreet signed off.