Hockey: India rout Pakistan to enter Asia Cup final

Sports Saturday 21/October/2017 22:00 PM
By: Times News Service
Hockey: India rout Pakistan to enter Asia Cup final

Dhaka: A dominant India continued their unbeaten run in the tournament and thrashed arch-rivals Pakistan 4-0 to sail into the final of the 10th men’s Asia Cup hockey tournament here on Saturday.
The sixth ranked India, who just needed a draw to seal a place in Sunday’s summit clash, produced a superlative performance after the change of ends to pump in four goals -- three field strikes and one through penalty corner.
Satbir Singh (39th minute), Harmanpreet Singh (51st), Lalit Upadhyay (52nd) and Gurjant Singh (57th) were the scorers for India.
By virtue of this win, India not only topped the Super 4 stage with seven points, but also continued their domination over Pakistan.
It was India’s fourth win over Pakistan this year, having beaten them twice in the Hockey World League Semifinals in London and once in the pool stages here.
The defeat knocked Pakistan out of the final race and India will now play Malaysia in the title match.
Malaysia advanced to the final after a 1-1 draw with South Korea, who will now play Pakistan for the third place.
Contrary to the result, the Indians were slow to get off the blocks, while Pakistan were the better side in terms of possession in the first two quarters.
Pakistan had three chances via penalty corners to take the lead in the first quarter, but wasted all.
The Indians secured the first penalty corner in the final minute of the opening quarter, but Harmanpreet messed up the opportunity.
After Ramandeep Singh’s shot was saved by Pakistan goalkeeper Amjad Ali in the 23rd minute, India defended well to deny their rivals from another short corner.
Minutes later, Harmanpreet hit the cross bar from India’s second penalty corner as both the teams failed to break the deadlock at half time.
But India looked more organised after the change of ends and dominated the proceedings in the final two quarters.
Satbir gave India the lead in the 39th minute after receiving a fine back stick pass from Lalit.
Minutes later, Harmanpreet’s effort from India’s third set piece was saved by Amjad Ali.
The Indians created chances in the final few minutes of the third quarter but Pakistan custodian Amjad Ali was upto the mark to keep Pakistan in the hunt.
India wasted two more penalty corners in a span of two minutes as Amjad Ali made multiple saves to deny their opponents.
India pressed on the gas in the final 10 minutes and scored three goals in a span of six minutes to run away with the game.
While Harmanpreet Singh scored his seventh goal of the tournament from India’s sixth penalty corner, Lalit made it 3-0 a minute later by pouncing on a loose ball inside the D.
India added salt to Pakistan’s wounds when Gurjant slotted home three minutes from the final hooter after receiving a precision pass from Akshdeep Singh from the right flank.
Oman lose
Meanwhile, China beat Oman 3-2 in a closely fought encounter to end their campaign in the sevenh place on Friday.
Oman coach K.K. Poonacha said: “We came here at least to finish sixth but could not achieve it. It means we have to work hard for improvement. This is a new team with number of changes and Oman is also building a team for the future. Though we were the bottom-ranked team, Oman scored against every single team in this tournament and that is a big plus we will take back home.”
“We have learnt a lot of good lessons in this tournament and work on our game further. Next, we will focus on doing well in the Asian Games Qualifier in Muscat and look at playing the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta,” he added.