`Tears of joy': Indian hockey team ends 41-year medal drought, clinch bronze at Tokyo

Hyderabad: Indian hockey team created history in Tokyo on Thursday after they won the bronze medal playoff match against Germany by 5-4. India clinched bronze and ended the Olympic Medal drought after 41 long years.

The Indian men's team lost against a world-class Belgium and were in the run to win the bronze as they faced Germany. Germany was beaten by Australia. Manpreet Singh and his men were put on the backfoot in the first couple of minutes of the first quarter itself as Germany scored the opening goal.

This meant a comeback had to be done soon to avoid conceding a lead to Germany. Germans then managed to keep the Indian team quiet as they went into the first quarter with a lead of 1-0.

India then scored the equalizer in the second quarter as Simranjeet Singh found the goal post with a reverse hit. Germans were again quick to score, not one but two this time as they took a massive lead of 3-1, with 5 minutes to half-time. India then pulled things back just in time as Hardik utilized the penalty corner and scored the second goal for India.

Right before the first half came to the end, India got a penalty corner and Harmanpreet scored the equalizer by finding the goal post. Scores were level at 3-3 at halftime.Moving onto the third quarter, India, for the first time in the match was in the driver's seat as they took the lead with Rupinder pal's goal as India got a penalty stroke.

India soon scored their fifth goal after Simranjeet Singh guided a brilliant pass from Gurjant Singh. By the end of the third quarter, India was leading with 5-3, just 1 quarter away from creating History.

Moving onto the last and final quarter, Germany did score a goal and brought the difference down to one. It was all down to the Indian defense to stop Germany score. Penalty corners were in plenty for both the teams, especially as the game reached the fag end. India and Germany got three consecutive penalty corners but couldn't score.

As the clock kept ticking, India was moving closer to a historic victory in Tokyo. Germans tried hard but PR Sreejesh stood like a wall in front of the goal post and stopped them from scoring.

There was a final twist in the tale as Germany got a penalty corner just before 6 seconds of the game got over. One last save from Sreejesh and India created history by winning bronze, their first Olympic Medal after 41 long years. Indian Hockey's last medal was gold at the Moscow Olympics in 1980. All the Indian players were in tears of joy as they wrote a new chapter in the history of Indian Hockey.

The Indian Women's Hockey team will now take on Great Britain in the bronze medal playoff match on Friday.