Four-nation tournament: Indian colts pip Spain

Parvinder Singh, Nilakanta Sharma and Armaan Qureshi scored in India's 3-1 win over Spain in the Four-Nation Invitational tournament.

Indian junior hockey team with coach Harendra Kumar (centre).

Indian juniors topped the table in the round-robin stage with a 3-1 win over host Spain at the Four-Nations Invitational tournament.

Parvinder Singh (fifth minute) opened the scoring while Nilakanta Sharma (30th minute) and Armaan Qureshi (41st minute) added to the tally.

Dominant from start, India won a penalty corner in the fifth minute. Parvinder Singh capitalised to give his team a 1-0 lead. Spain evened the tie after Gerard Garcia scored of a penalty corner in the 16th minute.

Hardly relenting in attack, India won a host of penalty corners thenceforth the half but couldn't breach Spanish custodian Alberto Carnicer. Nilakanta Sharma then ended the Spanish resistance in the 30th minute, giving India the lead.

Spain, despite being more aggressive and organised in the second half, couldn't break through India's defence.

A swift counter-attack in the 41st minute ended with a goal by Armaan Qureshi.