India breach China wall

India survived the Chinese penalty corner blitz for a 5-4 win against the Asian Games silver medallists for their first win in group A league of the 16th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament here today.

India survived the Chinese penalty corner blitz for a 5-4 win against the Asian Games silver medallists for their first win in group A league of the 16th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament here today.

In a bizarre match that saw 14 penalty corners being awarded, eight to China and six to India, besides two penalty strokes, India just about managed to cling to a slender lead after falling in arrears in the third minute.

China kept India on tenterhook by converting three of their eight penalty corners through Yang Yu 4th, Yi Song 20th and Hui Ren Hu 37th.

However, the Indians, decidedly the superior outfit on the day, replied in kind. V Ramachandra Raghunath 19th, 43rd flicked home two penalty corners after Prabhjot Singh 5th had scored the equaliser.

Rajpal Singh 35th and Bimal Lakra 60th converted a penalty stroke each to provide India an insurance against a late Chinese comeback that had Yi Song scoring his second goal of the match in the 64th.

Indian coach Joaquim Carvalho had dubbed it a 8220;grudge match8221; in the light of China8217;s 3-2 win in the Doha Asian Games last year. As such, the intensity was very much evident in their play and should have scored more than five goals. The first-half was more or less even with both teams having fair share of exchanges and scoring opportunities.

While it took the Indians two goals to figure out the Chinese penalty corner variations, they looked the superior side when in flow. It was the Chinese man-to-man marking that denied the Indians more success.

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Meanwhile, a 47th-minute penalty corner conversion by Lucas Rafael Rossi powered Argentina to a 1-0 win against Olympic champions and World number two Australia in a Group A match.

Malaysia scrambled to a 2-0 win over Canada for their first win in group B matches today. Jiwa Mohan converted a 10th minute penalty corner before Mohd Sharun increased the lead in the 70th.

8211;Anand Philar