India claim second successive hockey bronze in Olympics; beat Spain 2-1 in playoff

Paris: Skipper Harmanpreet Singh rose to the occasion once again with twin strikes as the Indian hockey team beat Spain 2-1 to claim a second consecutive bronze medal at the Olympics and give a perfect send-off to veteran custodian P R Sreejesh here on Thursday. The Indians recovered from the heart-wrenching 2-3 defeat to Germany in the semifinal and played positive hockey for most part of the match to come out trumps.

Harmanpreet (30th, 33rd minutes) converted two penalty corners after Spain skipper Marc Miralles gave his side the lead against the run of play in the 18th minute from a penalty stroke.

The Indians regrouped themselves and showed their mental strength to claim another podium finish at the world's biggest sporting spectacle. This was after they broke a 41-year jinx by claiming a bronze in Tokyo three years ago.

The 36-year-old Sreejesh came up with some excellent saves to leave his mark in the final game of his illustrious career that spanned 18 years.

The Indians were the aggressors in the first quarter, dominating the early exchanges with precision, but Spain came back hard after the first 15 minutes.

Spain had nine penalty corners as against India's six of which the latter converted two.

Spain did have better share of possession but India were the more offensive side as they penetrated the Spanish defence regularly in the first 15 minutes.

They walked in with more purpose and intensity in the second quarter and pressed hard on the Indian goal.

Spain took the lead in the 18th minute but Harmanpreet brought his A game to the fore yet again to steer India through.