Hockey India League: Rupinder Pal Singh’s missed stroke proves costly as TN Dragons beat Bengal Tigers to climb top
On paper, Shrachi Rarh Bengal Tigers got the same number of points from their last matches: none. After starting the Hockey India League with three wins out of three, they have now suffered back-to-back defeats. But the nature of those losses couldn’t have been more contrasting. On Friday in Rourkela, the Tigers went down 1-2 in a closely fought contest against a gritty Tamil Nadu Dragons, now the new leaders of the tournament. They huffed, they puffed, but couldn’t break the Dragons’ defence down.As captain Rupinder Pal Singh reflected on the loss, he made it a point to insist this was a performance much better than their 0-6 defeat against Kalinga Lancers, one where they just didn’t turn up at the start and lost to an early blitzkrieg. Rupinder also conceded that the turning point of the...