India defeats Pakistan, enters final

HYDERABAD: India seemed to have reserved its best for the semifinal against Pakistan and Diwakar Ram came up with a sterling display both as a defender and in scoring two goals to fashion India’s 3-1 win and entry into the final of the sixth junior Asia Cup hockey championship here on Tuesday.

The Indians quickly regained composure despite Pakistan forcing a penalty corner in the very first minute. The outstanding display came from the defenders, especially Innocent Kullu and Diwakar Ram, while Ranjit Singh on the left-flank showed enterprise and imagination in warding off a series of threats from Pakistan captain Shafqat Rasool and Shahzad Nasir.

Drawing first blood


In the 16th minute, winger Roshan Minz fed a precise short pass from the left-flank to Gurwinder Singh Chandi who in one action trapped and essayed a delectable reverse hit from the left of the ‘D’ to give India the lead.

With even Jagwant Singh making his presence felt upfront, India looked the better side. And with Chandi and Mandeep Antil working in tandem, the Pakistan citadel was often under pressure.

When Indian captain Gurbaj Singh was allegedly jostled by the frustrated pair of Khasif Ali and Muhammad Irfan, it led to the players being involved in a brawl in the 31st minute.

For four minutes the situation seemed to be going out of hand before better sense prevailed at the intervention of the technical officials and the referees Marcin Grochal of Poland and Al-Wahibi Thani Shaheem of Oman. Irfan got an yellow card amidst protests from the Pakistan camp.

At half-time, India led 1-0 and on resumption, it resumed the attacks. The fleet footed S.V. Sunil, on one of his darting runs down the left-flank, earned India its second penalty corner. This was duly converted by Diwakar in the 38th minute to make it 2-0.

But Pakistan hit back almost immediately. When Ranjit Singh committed a dangerous tackle on Pakistan’s Zaheer Ahmad inside the 25-yard area, it resulted in a penalty corner, which was converted by Khasif Ali to reduce the margin (1-2) in the 42nd minute. Thereafter, Pakistan earned three more penalty corners thanks to the brilliant displays by Rasool, Shahzad Nasir and Muhammad Zubair. But all went abegging.

In the 47th minute India increased its tally when Pakistani Imran Abbas’s dangerous tackle on Sunil gave India another penalty corner which was slotted home by Diwakar. After that custodian Sreejesh R. Raveendran thwarted several Pakistani attacks till the final whistle was blown.

“Diwakar needs special mention for his great display even as I repeat it was a great team effort,” said Indian coach A.K. Bansal. He was unhappy when the ugly incident took place and hoped that the Indian players would not fall prey to any provocation in future.

To meet Korea


Late in the evening, Nam Hyun Woo scored all the four goals to fashion Korea’s comfortable 4-2 win over Japan in the second semifinal to set up a title clash with the host. Interestingly, Nam Hyun Woo scored all the goals through penalty corner conversions.

The results: Semifinals: India 3 (Gurwinder Singh Chandi 1, Diwakar Ram 2) bt Pakistan 1 (Khasif Ali 1); Korea 4 (Nam Hyun Woo 4) bt Japan (Takayasu Mizawa 1, Ryohei Kawai 1).

Classification matches (5-8): Malaysia bt Oman 5-1; Bangladesh bt Singapore 3-1.

Source: hindu.com