Asian Champions Trophy: Indians to the fore

Nilakanta Sharma celebrates India’s opening goal with teammate Sumit at Chennai yesterday. Pic/Hockey India

A visibly better controlled Team India beat defending champions Korea 3-2 to consolidate their position atop the Asian Champions Trophy table and confirmed their semi-final berth here on Monday. The Indians seemed to be playing at a slow pace, without their trademark free-flowing overlapping runs. But even that proved to be good enough to beat the Koreans, who looked jaded, probably due to the energy-sapping weather conditions here.

The hosts went ahead in the sixth minute when Sukhjeet Singh picked up a pass from Sumit inside the opposition box, dodged past Korean defender Cheon Woo Ji and relayed a simple pass to Nilakanta Sharma, who pushed the ball home in one sweet action. The Koreans, meanwhile, continued to fight back and were almost immediately rewarded for their persistence. Three minutes from the end of the first quarter, Manjae Jung found teammate Sunghyun Kim inside the Indian striking circle and his swift turn and shot, though a feeble one, was good enough to beat India custodian Krishan Pathak.

India began the second quarter well and earned two back-to-back penalty corners. And after the first was blocked incorrectly, Harmanpreet (23rd minute) converted the second with a fierce drag flick that gave Korean custodian Jaehyeon Kim absolutely no time to react before the ball rushed in for 2-1. Moments later, Korea almost got the equaliser again, but this time India's veteran goalkeeper PR Sreejesh scrambled across to parry the ball away in a goalmouth melee.

In the third quarter, India extended their lead when veteran forward Mandeep Singh (32nd min) got a free ball inside the Korean striking circle, and with his back to the goal, unleashed a reverse hit to double the lead.

The final quarter saw India start positively with a penalty corner that eventually led to a penalty stroke when post-man Jang Kong halted Harmanpreet's flick with his body. However, Harmanpreet failed to beat a diving Korean goalkeeper Kim from close range. The Koreans then worked hard to earn over half-a-dozen penalty corners, and though their veteran drag flicker Jang Jong Hyun was off target, his partner Jihun Yang (57th min) pulled one back, beating Sreejesh all ends up.

After a rest day on Tuesday, India will take on arch-rivals Pakistan in what promises to be a mouth-watering clash of skill and flair on Wednesday.

Other results
>> Pakistan 2-1 China
>> Malaysia 3-1 Japan