India drub China 9-0 to stay in the hunt for top spot
KUANTAN, MALAYSIA: India thrashed China 9-0 to stay in the hunt for top spot in the roundrobin league competition of the fourth Asian Champions Trophy hockey tournament on Tuesday.
Akashdeep Singh, Yousuf Affan and Jasjit Singh Kumar scored three goals each as India steamrolled the Chinese defence. The Indians were looking to equal their 10-goal feat against Japan in this tournament when the hooter ended the contest.
Rupinder Pal Singh, captaining India in this contest, Nikkin Thimmaiah and Lalit Upadhyay also made entries in the scoresheet as India boosted their points tally to 10 from four matches, one of which was drawn.
India will take on hosts Malaysia next with both teams in contention for top spot in the round-robin league standings. Malaysia have nine points from three successive wins.
India went into this game without ace goalkeeper P R Sreejesh, who was seen wearing a brace on his left ankle. This paved the way for the coaches to give for a full game to goalkeeper Akash Chikte, who did well to ward off two penalty corner shots.
Akashdeep opened the Indian account in the ninth minute when he intercepted a backpass among Chinese defenders and beat goalkeeper Wang Hong Yu with a shot from the top of the circle that went into the net.
Akashdeep was also in the picture for India’s second goal in the 18th minute as he squared the ball to unmarked Affan in a brisk raid. Affan sent a welldirected push into the boards.
Jasjit swapped passes with Talwinder Singh in the scoring zone before scoring with a fine reverse shot that wrong-footed the custodian in the 22nd minute before Rupinder converted the first penalty corner three minutes later to give India a 4-0 lead at half-time. INDIAN COLTS SCORE, WOMEN GO DOWN VALENCIA: Drag-flicker Varun Kumar scored a brace to guide India to a 3-1 win over Germany in their opening game of the four-nation invitational hockey tournament here.
Varun struck in the 17th and 25th minutes before Ajay Yadav rounded off the tally for India in the 68th minute.
However, it was a disap pointing start for India’s jun ior women’s hockey team as they lost 0-3 to England in their opening match of the five-nation Invitational tournament.
In the men’s match, both India and Germany began the proceed ings on an intense note.