India to take on South Korea in semifinals

Top-ranked India will take on South Korea in the semifinals of the Asian Champions Trophy after the Koreans conceded a late equaliser to Malaysia and finished fourth in the round-robin league on Thursday.

India had topped the league standings with 13 points after finishing their preliminary fixtures on Tuesday, but there was plenty of drama on the last day of the league fixtures.

Pakistan defeated China 4-0 to take their points tally to nine, the same as Malaysia before their last tie against Korea, who had seven points.

Malaysia needed a victory or a draw to take the second spot in the group, but a victory in the last outing would have lifted the Koreans to the second place in the standings, pushing Malaysia down to the third spot and Pakistan to the fourth.

Jeong Jun-Woo put the Koreans ahead in the 37th minute, while Malaysia’s strikers kept spraying their shots wide.

The Koreans led by a goal until the 56th minute when seasoned shooter Razie Rahim converted a penalty corner to earn Malaysia a draw.

India will now have a chance to make up for their erratic show against the Koreans earlier in the competition, while Pakistan will face Malaysia.

For India, the services of Surender Kumar will be missed as the defender is serving a two match ban -- ruling him out of the tournament -- for a deliberate foul during their tie against the hosts.

With the competition reaching its business end and with not much hockey left to be played in this calender year, it would be interesting to see if the Indian chief coach Roelant Oltmans sticks to Akash Chikte in the goal or goes with the experience of PR Sreejesh.

While Rupinder Pal Singh continues to be India’s biggest weapon from the penalty corners, his defensive partner Jasjit Singh Kular too will be hoping to impress the team management with his prowess from short corners as he looks to find a place in the Indian set up that already has the likes of VR Raghunath and Harmanpreet Singh as specialists drag flickers.