Asia Cup | India inches closer to final after emphatic victory

Indian men took a big step towards redemption and a spot in the final of the Asia Cup hockey with a convincing 4-1 win against Malaysia in its second Super 4s match at the Rajgir Sports Complex here on Thursday.

The lessons from Wednesday’s disappointment were learnt along with a tweaking of the players’ roles.

The result took India to top of the table with four points with China second on three, ahead of Malaysia on goal difference.

It will also hopefully ease the pressure on the team and coach Craig Fulton ahead of the final clash with China as a draw will be enough for the host to finish in the top-two.

It wasn’t the best of starts when Shafiq Hassan dodged past Sanjay to enter and shoot past Krishan Pathak, unsighted by Sumit, in the second minute. The Malaysians tried to press ahead, constantly cutting in from the left.

The little things that didn’t work for India against Korea, including the connections inside the circle, came together on the day.

The build-up was patient, ground taken control of gradually, and the opposition pushed back into its own space.

Abhishek was pulled back into a feeder role and Manpreet Singh pushed ahead.

The pressure paid off in the second quarter with five back-to-back penalty corners in the 16th minute, the last of them resulting in a rebound slotted in by Manpreet for the equaliser. Two minutes later, Abhishek’s long pass to Shilanand Lakra was passed to Sukhjeet Singh, who made it 2-1.

India was taking control of both the game and its pace even as Malaysia struggled to find any space. Another build up in the 24th minute saw Sanjay’s long aerial from the left to Hardik Singh in the middle of the ground, putting Dilpreet Singh through before Lakra finished it off, sliding to deflect into the net, making it 3-1.

Resumption saw Malaysia try and regroup and earn its only PC of the game, only for Pathak to stretch high and save. Manpreet combining with Sumit was effective, creating a PC and several scoring chances, one of them finally finding Vivek Sagar Prasad in front of the goal to simply deflect and make it 4-1, all but sealing the win.

In the other Super 4s game, missed PCs let down defending champion Korea yet again as China, despite two of its key players suspended for earlier infringements, won 3-0.

Bangladesh had an easy 5-1 win against Kazakhstan in a playoff match.

The results: Super 4s: China 3 (Benhai Chen 13, 43, Jiesheng Gao 43) bt Korea 0.

India 4 (Manpreet Singh 17, Sukhjeet Singh 19, Shilanand Lakra 24, Vivek Sagar Prasad 38) bt Malaysia 1 (Shafiq Hassan 2).

5-8: Bangladesh 5 (Ashraful Islam 10, 23, Roman Sarkar 28, 33, Tayab Ali 34) bt Kazakhstan 1 (Altynbek Aitkaliyev 38).