India beat Malaysia; meet Korea in final

South Korea outplayed Japan 4-1 in the first semi-final to also book their berth for the championship to be held at Hobart, Australia next year. Lee Jung Seon (9th and 27th), Kim Joung Goo (11th) and Yoon Sung Hoon (70th) scored for Korea after Watanabe Yusuke put Japan ahead with a stunning 36th-second strike.

Malaysia and Japan will meet to decide the third qualifying spot for the World Cup.

India applied early pressure by forcing penalty corners in the sixth, seventh and eighth minutes as Malaysians seemed to wilt under the pressure of playing in front of a packed home crowd of over 15,000.

In the 16th minute, after the midfield had somewhat settled down, Deepak Thakur sped into the circle and saw his hit rebound off the goalkeeper’s pads. But Halappa, who had followed him, picked up the ball and smartly tapped in to hoist India’s lead.

India had a chance in the very next minute but after a scramble in the Malaysian circle, the ball rolled out.

India increased the lead in the 28th minute when Gagan Ajit Singh, who was just trying to settle in, dribbled in and unleashed a shot and the Malaysian goalkeeper Kumar Subramanium squatted on the ball.

The umpire pointed to the spot to the delight of the Indian players and Arjun Halappa converted the stroke for his and India’s second goal.

Just when it looked that India would dominate the proceedings, the defence started doing blunders with first Bimal Lakra delaying a clearance letting Malaysia earn a penalty corner.

The hosts earned three consecutive penalty corners with one coming with only five seconds left in the first half.

But goalkeeper Devesh Chauhan did well to charge out each time the Malaysian flicks to put India 2-0 ahead at the break.

In an evenly-balanced second half, Malaysia tried to break through but the Indian tactics of packing the midfield paid off.

The Indian frontliners — Deepak Thakur and Gagan Ajit Singh — continuously prodded the Malaysian defence and earned a couple of chances. The hosts goalkeeper, after an indifferent first half, did a good job at keeping the Indians away.

The Indian defence slackened following a comfortable lead and started making mistakes. Malaysia earned six penalty corners in the last 10 minutes of the game, but Devesh Chauhan did the job well to keep the rivals at bay.

Malaysia, finally, scored with 20 seconds to go when Chua gave the ball to Keevan who deflected it past Devesh.

India played with 10 men in the last five minutes as Bipin Fernandez was shown yellow card for dangerous play.

Len Aiyappa almost gave the advantage away in the last couple of minutes committing two consecutive errors as he tried to scoop the ball with Malaysian defenders in front provoking umpires to award penalty corners.

Indian coach CR Kumar said he was happy with the way the team played.

“I think we played a good first half and the second half was tough as they packed the midfield. But overall, it was a good win. Especially when you win in front of 15,000 fans supporting the home team.