The New Zealand men’s hockey team has staged an unforgettable comeback, coming from 5-1 down to tie with Scotland in their first match of the Commonwealth Games.
Nineteenth ranked Scotland took the lead in the first quarter against the 9th ranked Black Sticks, with a deflection by Rob Harwood.
Callum McKenzie then broke through the Black Stick’s scrappy defence to score Scotland’s second goal early in the second quarter.
Their third came soon after from Jamie Golden as New Zealand struggled to maintain their composure.
A fourth Scottish goal by Struan Walker was disallowed after New Zealand appealed on the grounds of dangerous play.
But Scotland made in 4-0 after Golden scored his second goal from a penalty corner after the ball got stuck in goalkeeper George Enersen’s kicker.
New Zealand finally retaliated with a goal from Kane Russell scoring from a penalty corner minutes later.
But it wasn’t enough to stem the flow of the Scottish attack, with Jamie Golden scoring from another penalty corner just before the end of the first half.
The situation improved dramatically for New Zealand in the second half, with Same Kane connecting with the back of the goal in the third quarter before Jake Smith made it 5-3 for New Zealand.
Then it was Dane Lett's turn to make it onto the scoreboard, thanks to a brilliant pass in the circle from Hugo Inglis.
A minute later, Sam Hiha propelled the ball into the back of the goal from the edge of the circle to draw the game 5-5 with 10 minutes to go.
The Black Sticks created several opportunities to score in the dying minutes of the game but were unable to draw ahead of Scotland.
The team will next play Pakistan on Sunday 31, while the New Zealand women have their turn playing Scotland on Saturday.
That’s after they thrashed Kenya 16-0 in their opening game of the tournament.
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