By Our Special Correspondent
The young Indian hockey team dished out some impressive and fast-paced hockey in a Super 4s match against South Korea but an outright victory eluded them as a 4-4 draw pushed them out of the Asia Cup title race, here on Tuesday. Malaysia’s 5-0 win over Japan early in the day meant that an outright win became a pre-requisite for India to qualify for the summit clash.
The contest went right down to the wire with India giving a tough fight till the final whistle. Nilam Sanjeep Xess (9′), Maninder Singh (21′), Sheshe Gowda BM (37′), and Mareeswaran Shakthivel (37′) scored the goals for India, while Jang Jonghyun (13′), Ji Woo Cheon (18′), Kim Jung Hoo (28′), and Jung Manjae (44′) scored the goals for Korea in the tight contest. India will now challenge Japan in the Bronze-medal match on Wednesday.
But in the ninth minute Nilam scored with a low flick to the right bottom corner of the Korean net past Kim from India’s second penalty corner. Two minutes from the first quarter, India conceded a penalty corner and Jang Jonghyun was bang on target to draw level for Korea.
Nilam Sanjeep Xess received another chance to score from a PC a couple of minutes later, and this time, he converted to give India a 1-0 lead. But Korea drew level immediately with Jang Jonghyun scoring from a PC before the close of the first quarter.
Korea made it 2-1 five minutes later when Ji Woo Cheon chose his spot after being fed by Jungjun Lee following a defensive lapse from Pawan Rajbhar inside his own circle.
India began cautiously in the second half, holding on to ball possession at the start of the third quarter. The Korean defence was caught off guard again in the 37th minute as Sheshe Gowda BM made an excellent cross inside the circle for Mareeswaran Shakthivel, who tapped the ball into the back of the nets to give India a 4-3 lead. Jung Manjae drew the score level after hitting the ball past Suraj Karkera, and the match went to the final quarter with the scoreline levelled at 4-4.
As the clock began to close, India began to show urgency in attack, while Korea sat at half depth to defend India’s attack strings. Pawan Rajbhar sent a long pass to Uttam Singh inside the circle at the last minute to give India a last-minute chance. But the Indian player could not bring his stick to the ball and the match ended in a draw.
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