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Confident India brush South Africa aside

Last Updated 31 July 2014, 21:33 IST

A clinical first-half performance from India saw them breeze past South Africa by 5-2 margin to qualify for the semifinal of the men’s hockey competition at the 20th Commonwealth Games here on Thursday.

Having finished second in the pool behind defending champions Australia, India will now take on New Zealand in the semifinal while the Kookaburras are pitted against England in the other last four clash.

Dragflickers V Raghunath and Rupinderpal Singh were on target in the 4th and 8th minute respectively followed by a 22nd minute strike by Ramandeep Singh to make it 3-0.

SV Sunil (26th minute) played a brilliant one-two with Nikkin Thimmaia before tapping it in to make it 4-0.

Manpreet Singh dived full stretch to meet an Akashdeep Singh cross to round off the tally in the 58th minute.

Having pumped in four goals in the first half which proved to be good enough, India did drop guard after the change of ends conceding a couple of goals in the process.
For the Proteas, Taine Patton (42nd minute) deflected one in through a quick counter while Austin Smith was on target in the 46th minute with a successful drag-flick conversion.

India would have got through to the last-four stage even with a draw but Sardar Singh and his boys showed a lot of positive intent during the first 35 minutes in which they clinched a semifinal berth.

Nikkin and SV Sunil played well upfront with a lot of support from Gurwinder Singh Chandi and Manpreet Singh. Although Gurbaaz Singh looked a bit off-colour, skipper Sardar controlled the midfield proceedings to ward off any challenge from the opposition.

The only problem that India faced was the lack of numerical advantage when the rival team hit back on counters.
Both Raghunath and Rupinderpal have a tendency of not falling back after having gone on the overlap.

This led to the freak first goal from the South Africans when Patton just flicked a long pass which was sent down the middle without any intervention from the Indian defensive third.

Sardar reprimanded

Indian captain Sardar was officially reprimanded for inappropriate physical conduct against an opposition player during India’s group match against Australia. The incident happened on Tuesday when Eddie Ockenden was hit on the face.

After video evidence was played, the jury  found that Sardar had no intention to cause the injury to Ockenden but had behaved inappropriately, the organisers said in a statement. The official reprimand has no immediate consequences.

Eves play Scotland

After failing to qualify for the semifinals, the Indian women’s hockey team will take on hosts Scotland in the 5-6 position playoff on Friday.

The teams last met during the Champions Challenge 1 when India lost 3-4. The sides had also met in the 2006 edition of the Games in Melbourne where India triumphed 5-0 but in 2010 Delhi Games, the match had ended in a 1-1 draw.
Scotland is a well balanced side with half of the squad playing at their second Commonwealth Games. But the Indian eves have experience on their side and have emerged a strong contender.

India, however, will have to look out for Scottish midfielder Nikki Kidd and forward Linda Clement, who have been in top form during the tournament.

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(Published 31 July 2014, 21:33 IST)

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