India put eight goals past Japan
JAKARTA: India thrashed Japan 8-0 on Friday to cross the 50-goal mark in the tournament. Their third victory in as many matches, which followed lopsided wins over Indonesia (17-0) and Hong Kong (26-0), also almost puts them in the semi-finals.
India raced to a 2-0 lead in the first quarter with SV Sunil and Dilpreet Singh converting field goals but they should blame themselves for not scoring enough in the second quarter as they missed a number of chances. Only Rupinder Pal Singh converted a penalty corner to help India move to 3-0.
Mandeep Singh netted his first goal in the second minute of the third quarter, before Rupinder again struck through a penalty stroke.
SREEJESH STARS
The Japanese side did manage to break India’s defence on a few occasions, including earning a penalty corner in the third quarter.
However, they always ran into skipper and goalkeeper PR Sreejesh who was substituted in the final quarter with Krishan Bahadur Pathak.
Akashdeep Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad and Mandeep Singh sounded the board to complete the scoreline.
PENALTY CORNER WOES
While India outplayed the strongly-built Japanese in all departments, playing structured hockey with fast-paced accurate passing and dribbling inside the penalty circle, they could convert just one out of the eight penalty corners they got.
Seasoned campaigner Sardar Singh said, “We were focussed on playing our natural game and converting opportunities into goals.”
India now play Korea on Sunday before playing their last league match against Sri Lanka on Tuesday.