India bench press before round two of heavyweight contest

For India, their last hope of making it to the finals were dashed yesterday when the Dutch beat Korea. The Indians now have at hand another titanic clash against Pakistan on Sunday for the third place.

The Indians were quite disappointed at missing out on the historic opportunity to have a go at the title and it showed in the middle in their performance. With coach Rajinder Singh focussed on winning the bronze, he used the opportunity against Korea to test his bench strength.

Incidentally, India’s best performance in the prestigious championship came in 1982 when they won the bronze. At the moment, this team looks capable of repeating the act and it will be a remarkable achievement if they can beat Pakistan twice in the span of five days.

The Indian manager Aslam Sher Khan and coach Rajinder spoke very briefly at the post-match conference, fully acknowledging that the Korean match was not taken seriously by the team.

‘‘This was the only match we played without any pressure,’’ said Rajinder. He also clarified that medio Bimal Lakra, who was not in the team today, was fully fit. “We are looking forward to an exciting game against Pakistan,’’ he said and added that ‘‘any team which could convert the chances on that day would win.”

India’s young goal-poacher Gagan Ajit Singh, playing his 100th international set the first goal for Dhanraj Pillay and then struck the second goal from a cross by skipper Dilip Tirkey.

Tirkey’s hit rebounded off the Korean goalkeeper’s pad and Gagan grabbed the ball to score.

The scorers for Korea were Shin Seok Kyo, Kim Yoon Seok, Hwang Jong Hyun and Jeon Jong Ha.
The match was more important for the Koreans as they have struggled with their form except for the win against the tournament’s punching-bag Australia, who lost al five matches.

The Korean packed their defence against India and cornered the spaces which botled up the Asian Games champion.

The Korean defenders had kept a tight lease on Indian ace striker Dhanraj Pillay. The Indian think-tank took the opportunity of trying the bench and gave long sessions to youngster Arjun Halappa.

Interestingly, drag-flicker Jugraj Singh, who so far had a mixed outing in the defence, played as an attacking midfielder.