UNI
KUALA LUMPUR, Jun 21: Firing on all cylinders, India demolished Asian Games champions South Korea 3-0 in a rain-marred encounter to storm into the semifinal of the 15th Sultan Azlan Shah hockey tournament here on Wednesday.
For the winners, who led 2-0 at half time, Tejbir Singh (9th), Sandeep Singh (15th) and Tushar Khandekar (53rd) were the scorers.
Despite a three-hour rain delay and being down to 10 men in the last seven minutes, India held onto overpower a nippy Korea who had earlier shocked Olympic champion Australia 3-0.
India last won the Sultan Azlan Shah in 1995, then also under coach V Bhaskaran. After the 2003 Asia cup victory here at the Bukit Jalil stadium, this is the first time that India has entered the semifinals of a major tournament.
Indian coach Bhaskaran was ecstatic in reaching the semifinals of the Azlan Shah and said, “The team played with a lot of confidence and knowing that it was a crunch match, it was all the more creditable.”
India started off brilliantly with a three-man forward line comprising Tushar Khandekar, Tejbir Singh and Shivender Singh. There was no unnecessary huddling into corners and the team spread itself creating space for every player. Tushar, Shivender and Tejbir kept themselves upfront creating a lot of pressure on the Korean defence. Tejbir was the star of the first half with some great moves and held the ball long enough for the others to move into position.
It was Tejbir who gave the lead to India in the ninth minute. Sandeep Singh had a free hit well outside the Korean striking circle and the junior world cup star's clean, crisp shot found Tejbir who angled his stick brilliantly to ensure the deflection beat Ko Dong Sik, the Korean goalkeeper.
With their tails up after taking the lead, the Indians rotated the ball well and also closely marked the Koreans not giving away too many errors in their own striking circle or in the midfield.
In the 15th minute, India increased the lead off their first penalty corner. Sandeep Singh’s low flick beat the Korean goalkeeper as India went ahead 2-0.
It was but natural that the Koreans would push harder and they did giving some anxious moments to the Indian defence which now had Kanwalpreet Singh doing a splendid job.
With seven minutes to go in the first half, heavy rains came down as the pitch was water-logged making play difficult. The referees temporarily called off the game waiting for the rain to stop.
After a three-hour break for the rains to clear, the match began with Korea making early inroads into the Indian half. For the remaining period of seven minutes that were played of the first half, the Indians were pinned to their own striking circle as the Koreans tried their best to cut the 0-2 deficit.
As play resumed after break, the Koreans kept up the pressure forcing the Indians onto the defensive. With Bhaskaran rotating the players fast, the fresh legs were always on the field as the Koreans did try hard but couldn’t breach the defence.
Adrian D’Souza also kept the flag flying with some very good saves in the second half. Twice, he dived to force the ball away even though the Korean forwards were almost onto him.
It was a counter-attack that gave India their third goal in the 53rd minute. Tushar put Shivender through and the Mumbai lad streaked into the striking circle as Korean goalkeeper was forced to come on top of the circle. But the ball bounced off the pads and went to Tushar who ran and tapped the ball into an empty goal.
Within two minutes, Korea had changed their goalkeeper with Lee Myung Ho coming in for Dong Sik. Tejbir who had a wonderful match, however, was given a yellow card in the 63rd minute for a shove on a Korean player. Earlier, Tejbir had received a green card.
India earned their second penalty corner in the 67th minute but couldn’t convert. Korea didn’t get a single penalty corner in the match which actually showed the tremendous amount of work that India did with their defensive play.