Relaxed Indians toy with China

Rajgir: Indian hockey thrives on edge-of-the-seat action. The ongoing Asia Cup has been no exception, with the ‘will they or won’t they reach the final’ question hinging on Saturday’s last Super 4s clash against China. That uncertainty, however, had been resolved even before they could take the field on Saturday for their last match in the Super 4s with South Korea’s win against Malaysia in an earlier confirming India’s progress to the summit clash. 

Harmanpreet’s men, though, weren’t going to take the inconsequential game against China lightly. With spring in their foot, India hammered an out-of-sorts China 7-0 to storm into the final in style. 

Carrying the momentum from their win against Malaysia on Thursday, Shilanand Lakra (4th), Dilpreet Singh (7th), Mandeep Singh (18th), Raj Kumar Pal (37th), Sukhjeet Singh (39th) and Abhishek (46th, 50th) netted goals for the hosts. 

The win put India on top of the Super 4s table with seven points and a timely confident-booster ahead of the final against Korea who secured a comeback victory over Malaysia to gather four points and finish ahead of China.  

The relaxed Indians played free-flowing hockey in front of the most raucous crowd here so far in an overflowing stadium. 

From the word go, the Chinese found it difficult to break the sync the Indians were in. The first of the rewards came when a high ball from Harmanpreet to Jarmanpreet Singh was fed to Shilanand Lakra who slotted it into the net. Goal two was a flick rebound tapped in by Dilpreet Singh. 

In the second quarter, Mandeep Singh converted another PC in a similar manner as India went up 3-0 in the 18th minute.

Momentum

The favourable momentum, healthy lead and a flummoxed opponent meant that the home side could afford to waste some time to reserve energy for the big game 24 hours later perhaps. Midfielder Manpreet Singh and forward Mandeep were seen taking the liberty of making a few interesting shots at the goal for fun until half-time.    

The turnover had India mixing up the positions of the players to dominate the proceedings mostly inside the 25-yard line of captain Chongcong Chen and his men. 

While Raj Kumar Pal (37th) added the fourth goal, Sukhjeet Singh drove a diving forehand into the back of the net in the 39th minute to end the third quarter at 5-0.

In the final 15 minutes, striker Abhishek’s soft touch gave India its sixth before his love for reverse hits in front of the post paid dividends to give his second and the team’s seventh goal. 

Korea upset Malaysia

Sitting at a comfortable 3-1 lead, things drastically went downhill for favourites Malaysia when the gritty Koreans fought their way back into the game to score a 4-3 upset win and dash Malaysian hopes. 

On Sunday, the Marhan Jalil-led side will play for a consolation third place in the playoff against China.  

Results: Super 4s: India: 7 (Shilanand Lakra 4th, Dilpreet Singh 7th, Mandeep Singh 18th, Raj Kumar Pal 37th, Sukhjeet Singh 39th, Abhishek 46th, 50th) bt China: 0; Korea: 4 (Hyeonhong Kim 24th, 51st, Seyong Oh 44th, Jungjun Lee 50th) bt Malaysia: 3 (Fitri Saari 9th, Aiman Rozemi 29th, Syed Cholan 31st).

5th-8th placings: Kazakhstan: 6 (Agymtay Duisengazy 12th, 23rd, 30th, 36th, 56th, Altynbek Aitkaliyev 47th) bt Chinese Taipei: 4 (Yu-Cheng Chang 7th, Tsung-Yu Hsieh 13th, 18th, 31st).