Rajgir, Sep 2: Buoyed by an unbeaten pool campaign, a confident and determined Indian men’s hockey team will need to lift its game a notch against title-holders and five-time champions Korea when the two sides clash in their first Super 4 stage match of the Asia Cup here on Wednesday.
The Indians finished Pool A engagements with an all-win record, beating China 4-3, Japan 3-2 before demolishing minnows Kazakhstan 15-0 on Monday.
But the results hardly speak of the way India had started the campaign, scraping past China and Japan before the swashbuckling win over Kazakhstan, who were in the tournament for just the second time ever.
But India can take solace from the big win after two scratchy games.
It will also help that the tournament’s most successful team, Korea, hasn’t looked at its best so far, having finished second in Pool B behind Malaysia. The Koreans were favourites to top but got a rude shock when Malaysia defeated them 4-1.
They have struggled in the sweltering heat and high humidity here during afternoon matches, but with the Super 4 games starting in the evening, one can expect them to lift their game after the rest day on Tuesday.
In Monday’s match, every aspect of the game was played well by India, be it goalkeeping, defence, mid-field or attacks.
The most heartening was the performance of the forward-line with Abhishek stealing the limelight with four goals.
Besides the goals, what was more pleasing to see was Abhishek’s positioning and first-time strikes when he got the ball inside the circle.
Sukhjeet Singh, who also scored a hat-trick, was another player who sparkled with his pacy dribbling from the flanks and the sense of calm inside the ‘D’.
The experienced Mandeep Singh has been expectedly brilliant with his stick-work in the tournament so far.
The only sticking point in India’s forward-line remains Dilpreet Singh, who scored on Monday but also missed a sitter. He has been struggling in the tournament so far and needs to pull himself up.
Needless to say, India’s chief coach Craig Fulton was happy with his strikers’ overall performance.
“Going into the Super 4s you want your strikers connecting and scoring goals,” Fulton said.
India’s mid-field has been led brilliantly by veteran Manpreet Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Sumit, and the young Rajinder Singh.
The back-line, comprising Amit Rohidas, Jugraj Singh and Sanjay have produced an improved performance under the able leadership of skipper Harmanpreet Singh.
Suraj Karkera has had a good tournament so far under the goal, and India’s first-choice goalkeeper Krishan Bahadur Pathak also lifted his game against Kazakhstan after two ordinary outings.
But Fulton also knows very well that it would be foolish to judge the performance of the players against a side like Kazakhstan. He knows that the real tournament starts from here with previous results holding no significance.
Fulton, however, believes the confidence of the team will aid their progression.
“We are full of confidence now. It was good to spend a lot of time in the final third and that’s what we wanted to get,” he said.
Another important area of the game which Fulton would be pleased with is penalty corner conversion.
India boasts of a strong quartet of drag-flickers led by Harmanpreet, and against Kazakhstan all four – Harmanpreet, Jugraj Singh, Sanjay and Rohidas found the net from set pieces. In fact, Jugraj scored a hat-trick and was also solid in defence.
But the Super 4 stage is a fresh beginning for all the four teams — India, Korea, China and Malaysia.
All of them will play each other and the top two will qualify for Sunday’s final.
The ongoing Asia Cup is a direct qualifier for next year’s World Cup to be jointly hosted by Belgium and the Netherlands from August 14 to 30.
In the other Super 4 match, Malaysia will take on ever-improving China earlier in the day. (PTI)
Match starts at 7:30 PM