Asian Champions Trophy hockey
KUANTAN (MALAYSIA): Goalkeeper PR Sreejesh starred in front of the goal on Saturday to help India beat South Korea in the penalty shootout and set up a mouth-watering title clash against arch-rivals Pakistan in the fourth Asian Champions Trophy hockey tournament, here. Recovering from his ankle injury to play in Saturday’s semi-final at the Kuantan Hockey Stadium, Sreejesh saved the South Korea’s last attempt to secure the hard-fought 5-4 win in the shootout after both the teams were locked 2-2 at the end of regulation time. Sreejesh padded away the ball from the stick of Lee Dae-Yeol to clinch the victory and seal India’s place in Sunday’s summit clash. This is India’s third entry into the final of the Asian Champions Trophy, whose inaugural edition it won in 2011 and were runners up to Pakistan in 2012. Later in the day, defending champions Pakistan avenged their loss to hosts Malaysia in the opening match when they prevailed 3-2 in the penalty shootout of the second semi-final after the regulation period ended in a 1-1 draw. India had earlier defeated Pakistan 2-1 in the round-robin league stage of the tournament. During regulation period, Malaysia opened the scoring in the 18th minute through a penalty corner conversion by Shahril Saabah, but Pakistan equalised through an open play goal by Abdul Khan in the 34th minute. In the shootout, only the first two attempts for Malaysia by Firhan Ashari and and Faizal Saari were converted, while Faiz Jali, Shahril Saabah and Fitri Saari all faltered. Only four shots were taken for Pakistan as Abdul Khan, Muhammad Ifran Jr and Muhammad Arslan Qadir shot on target, while only Muhammad Rizwan Sr failed on his attempt. As they had already taken a winning lead, the fifth Pakistan shot was not required. Earlier, top-ranked India found the young Koreans tough opponents, who bounced back after conceding the initial lead and were in the lead briefly before India got the equaliser in regulation period. The match went to shootout after Ramandeep Singh scored made it 2-2 for India in the 55th minute. (PTI)
