India sail, Pakistan held
Favourites India put up a strong performance against Malaysia in their Super 4s encounter of the Hero Asia Cup at the Maulana Bhasani Hockey Stadium to notch an emphatic 6-2 win while Pakistan once again surrendered the lead to play out a 1-1 draw against holders South Korea yesterday.
The win means that India have not only brought down high-flying Malaysia, who were unbeaten in the competition, but also that they sit on top of the table with four points from two outings, followed by Malaysia, South Korea and Pakistan who have three, two and one respectively.
However, all the teams remain in the title hunt as the top two finishers in from the Super 4s will advance to the final, while the bottom two will play the 3rd-4th place-deciding match. If more than two teams are tied on points for the first two positions then goal difference (GD) will be considered first, followed by goals conceded. On Saturday, South Korea (zero GD) will take on Malaysia (-3 GD) before India (+3 GD) face Pakistan (-1 GD) in the final round of matches of the Super 4s.
India entered the match on the back of a 1-1 draw against South Korea and completely outclassed Malaysia, who had beaten India 3-2 in the Hockey World League semifinal round in England last June. The two-time champions played their best match of the tournament so far to make it a one-sided affair where they led 5-0 at one point.
Although Malaysia did stage a comeback in the final quarter to pull two goals back, it was not enough to repeat what they accomplished in England.
Akashdeep Singh, Harmanpreet Singh, Uthappa Sannuvanda, Gurjant Singh, Sunil Sowmarpet and Sardar Singh struck one goal apiece for India while Malaysia's Razie Rahim and Rosli Ramadan reduced the margin.
In the day's first match, Pakistan wasted another opportunity to register a second win since their lone victory so far over Bangladesh in their campaign opener despite playing comparatively better hockey than before against holders South Korea.
Similar to their Super 4s match against Malaysia, Pakistan surrendered the lead again to play out a stalemate against South Korea and continue their four match losing streak. This makes the task to confirm a place in the final difficult as they need a massive win over India, who just need a draw against Pakistan to advance.
Four-time champions South Korea came into the fixture less than 24 hours after a 1-1 draw against India and were not as impressive as they were the day before, conceding in the last minute of the first quarter with Ajaz Ahmed finding the board with a reverse hit.
Despite taking the lead, the Pakistani forwards squandered a few scoring chances to widen the margin despite getting Korean goalkeeper Hong Doopyo in all sorts of trouble while Korea could not beat Pakistan's goalkeeper Amjad Ali in their sporadic attacks of the first and second quarters before Lee Namyong finally levelled the score just in time through a fierce hit from Jing Jonghyun in the 48th minute.
Afterwards, both Pakistan and Korea found one opportunity each but neither Kim Seongkyu nor Shan Ali cashed in on their respective chances as the match ended in a 1-1 draw.
Comments