India go atop table with 5-0 thrashing of Malaysia but story of the missing forwardline continues
India players celebrate their opening goal against Malaysia at Chennai yesterday. Pic/Hockey India
India romped to a 5-0 win over Malaysia to top the points table in their third match of the Asian Champions trophy at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium on Sunday, but not without some old problems still persisting.
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The sorry story of the ‘missing’ forwardline continued as Sukhjeet Singh, Mandeep Singh, Akashdeep Singh, Shamsher Singh and Vivek Sagar Prasad were guilty of wasting opportunities galore to add their names to the score sheet.
After yet another rusty start by the hosts, local boy Karthi Selvam scored the opening goal a minute before the end of the first quarter. A long ball from skipper Harmanpreet Singh from inside his own half, found an unmarked Selvam inside the Malaysian box, and the Tamil Nadu lad promptly trapped the ball and hammered in his first international goal on home soil. After a barren second quarter, India’s second goal came off their third penalty corner. Hardik Singh (32nd min) turned in a rebound after skipper Harmanpreet Singh’s drag flick was saved by Malaysian custodian Hafizuddin Othman.
Midway through the third quarter, Malaysia thought they had scored when Najmi Jazlan’s penalty corner drag flick sneaked in, but the risen ball had struck an onrushing Amit Rohidas’s body before that and the video umpire adjudicated it to be dangerous play. In the dying moments of the third quarter, India got three back-to-back short corners and though Harmanpreet failed to beat the Malaysian defence in the first two, in the third, his drag flick deflected off the post-man and went in for 3-0. India’s fourth goal came eight minutes from the end when Gurjant Singh got a final touch to a Mandeep Singh reverse hit inside the Malaysian box. Drag flicker Jugraj Singh then made it 5-0, with six minutes left on the clock when he converted India’s ninth penalty corner.
Today, the hosts take on Korea, who were the highest finishing Asian team (they lost in the quarter-finals) at the World Cup in Bhubaneswar-Rourkela earlier this year, which means it won’t be an easy outing.
Earlier, Pakistan achieved what India could not a day, by breaching Japan’s defence thrice in a 3-3 draw. Pakistan opened the scoring through Abdul Rana (9th min) before Japan equalised through Seren Tanaka (13th). Pakistan took the lead again when Muhammad Khan (25th) scored off a penalty corner before Japan restored parity for a second time, through a Ryosei Kato (37th) field goal. This time the Japanese went ahead with skipper Masaki Ohashi (45th) converting a short corner. However, Pakistan rallied to make it 3-3 when Muhammed added his second off a penalty corner with five minutes to full time.
In the day’s first match, China did brilliantly to hold defending champions Korea to a 1-1 draw. Korea scored first through veteran drag flicker Jang Kong Hyun (18th minute) before China’s JungHoo Kim (43rd min) scored a field goal to ensure both teams shared the spoils.
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