Pakistan hockey legend Sohail Abbas hails Sandeep Singh

Sandeep Singh seems to reserve his best against Pakistan. As he made the difference once again, Pakistan legend Sohail Abbas conceded: “The Sandeep Singh factor is counting a lot in our matches.”

India beat Pakistan 4-1 at the World Cup in March, won 4-2 in the Azlan Shah tournament in Malaysia in May and hammered the rivals 7-4 at last month’s Commonwealth Games with Sandeep playing an important role in all the wins.

“All his penalty corner strokes today were very good. Our goalkeeper did well to save his third try but it was also on target,” Abbas said.

Sandeep revealed he had gone into the match with a plan against veteran goalkeeper Salman Akbar. “We had studied his game and because of that I got the success.”

The Indian defender said the turning point of the game was goalkeeper Bharat Chettri’s save off Abbas’ drag flick.