Indian hockey team reach Semi-final of the Olympics after 49 years

The Indian men's hockey team earns a historic win over Great Britain by a margin of 3-1 in the quarterfinals of the Tokyo Olympics on Sunday to reach the semi final of the quadrennial game.

India found the lead in the first quarter when Simranjeet tried to lead an attack in Great Britain's D box, he leaps forward and Dilpreet takes charge of the ball strikes it past the opponent's goalkeeper to lead 1-0 after 7 minutes into the match. A minute into the second quarter, Hardik Singh steals the ball and Gurjant Singh sends the ball swiftly into the opponent's net to lead 2-0 in the 16th minute.

India maintained their lead till the end of the first half backed by terrific goalkeeping of PR Sreejesh who has always been the biggest pillar of hope for India. The Britishers found their goal in the dying moments of the third quarter when a quick deception by their man in mask Samuel Ward struck past Sreejesh in the 45th minute.

A brilliant run by Hardik from the halfway of the field dodging past five defenders saw India further drive their lead to 3-1 just five three minutes remaining into the match, which was enough to seal the match and register themselves in the annals of India's fertile hockey history.

With this win, the Indian men's hockey team has entered the semi final for the first time in 49 years after the 1972 Munich Games. Though they won the gold medal in the 1980 Moscow Olympics, it was marred by a US-led protest which just saw the hockey event as a six-team affair, where India directly played the final after going through round-robin stages of the match.