India, Pakistan stumble in openers

India and Pakistan both stumbled in their respective opening matches of the Asian Champions Trophy at the Maulana Bhasani Hockey Stadium yesterday.

Defending champions and Tokyo Olympic bronze-medallists India were held to a 2-2 draw by South Korea while Asian Games gold-medallists Japan were held to a goalless draw by struggling giants Pakistan in the day's second match in which Japan played comparatively better than the four-time World Cup champions.

India, playing their first tournament since the Tokyo Olympics, got off to a flying start by taking a lead in the very fourth minute before doubling the margin in the 33rd minute.

But they failed to keep the lead intact against a resolute Korea, who came out all-guns-blazing in the third and fourth quarters to snatch a point from the tournament favourites.

India, with their fast-paced attacking game, looked well ahead of Korea, who sat back to defend from the start. But they also showed character to come back from two goals down and their goalkeeper Jaehyeon Kim was superb under the post, thwarting a few penalty corners.

India needed only four minutes to take the lead as Lalit Upadhyay controlled the ball outside the circle and danced past a couple of Korean defenders before sending the ball over Kim.

However, India had to wait for nearly half-an-hour to double the lead, which came when Harmanpreet Singh converted a penalty corner after the team's first corner was well-thwarted by Korea.

Trailing 2-0, Korea showed bravery and brilliantly fought back to give the Indian backline a tough time and force them into conceding a couple of corners.

Korea pulled one goal back through Jonghyun Jang, who converted a penalty in the 41st minute. Korea continued pressing hard and they finally found the equaliser in the 46th minute when Sunghyun Kim tapped home a fierce drive from the right flank.

Although India thought they had restored their lead in the 53rd minute, the goal was ruled out by a Korean review. They faced further frustration as Korea foiled three more penalty corners in the remaining time to force India to split the points.