India stun hosts at the death
India forward Abhishek scored just three seconds before the final whistle and broke the Bangladesh hearts to win the final of the U-18 Asia Cup Hockey Tournament 5-4 at the Maulana Bhasani Hockey Stadium yesterday.
As the electronic clock was halted with only 25 seconds left for the whistle due to treatment of Bangladesh forward Mahabub Hossain, all the Bangladesh players came back to the 25-yard quarter of the blue turf to prevent conceding a late goal as they looked to take the tie into penalty shootout. However, once the game resumed, one of the Indian players barged into the quarter without facing resistance and fed Abhishek, who hit fiercely at the back of the board, leaving Bangladesh goalkeeper rooted to his spot and the 3000 spectators stunned to silence.
“Even though both teams are equal in strength, the Bangladeshi players lacked strong mentality. We were fully concentrated on the match till the last minute and did not give up our hope of scoring the winning goal as we were seriously looking forward to ending the match within the regulation time. We availed the opportunity when Bangladesh lost their concentration,” India captain Nilam Sandeep said after the match.
“We actually wanted to take the match into penalty shootout where we could have had an opportunity, but we failed to keep our concentration towards the last moments,” said Bangladesh captain Roman Sarker, who was later adjudged the best player of the match.
Though Bangladesh lost the final, they won the hearts of people with the way they played throughout the tournament and they showed that given a platform to flourish, they will improve further.
Bangladesh took the lead twice but failed to hold on as India established their stranglehold with better ball possession as the game progressed. Bangladesh took the lead against the run of play with Roman converting the first penalty corner in the 22nd minute, but the lead lasted only a minute with Shivam Anand equalising without facing any resistance from the Bangladesh defenders.
After keeping away a reverse-hit from Dilpreet Sigh in the 28th minute, Bangladesh restored the lead in the 35th minute when Mohammad Moshin changed the direction of a fierce hit from Sabuj Rahman.
India levelled the margin in the 44th minute with Hardik Singh converting a penalty corner and the former champions took the lead for the first time in the 50th minute through Dilpreet Singh, who exploited Bangladesh's vulnerable defence down the left flank.
Ashraful made the margin 3-3 in the 53rd minute but Konjengban Singh gave India the lead again nine minutes later. Bangladesh came back again two minutes later, with Mahbub finding the board with a reverse hit, but as the clocked ticked down, Abhishek struck the winning goal and helped India win the title for the second time since their triumph in the inaugural edition in 2001.
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