India slot in five, miss nine

Captain Lazarus Barla struck twice while Inderjit Singh, Prabhjot Singh and Gagan Ajit Singh contributed once each to the Indian score. Mohammed Ishtiaque scored the consolation goal for Bangladesh.

In other matches of the day, South Korea thrashed inexperienced Chinese Taipei 13-1 while defending champions Pakistan crushed Singapore 13-0.

The scorers for Pakistan were Shabbir Mohammad (2), Dilawar Hussain, Atif Mushtaq, Muhammad Asim, Kasif Jawad (2), Zeeshan Ashraf Oasmi, Sameer Hussain (2), Mudassar Ali Khan (2) and Faraz Haider.

Though the Indian victory margin was smaller compared to their two rivals, coach CR Kumar was satisfied with the win.

“With Bangladesh playing a packed defence it was difficult to score. But we created the moves and I think in a match or two, the forwards will start scoring,” he said.

Kumar also praised the Bangladesh side for defending well.“We sometimes never give credit to the opposition. If we made the moves and created the chances, they defended well,” he said.

With India placed in an easy group, Kumar was already looking ahead to the semifinals and hoped the team settles in by then.

“It would be wrong if I say I am not already looking at the semifinals. We will be there and we need to win and go to the final. I don’t believe in participation and its high time the Indian team starts winning international tournaments.

India started slowly as the midfield took some time to settle down with the two senior forwards Gagan Ajit Singh and Deepak Thakur tentative.

After a couple of close misses, India finally took thelead when captain Barla slammed in the team’s third penalty corner in the 11th minute. Two minutes later, Barla was again on target when his penalty corner drive beat the Bangladesh goalkeeper again.

Bangladesh pulled one back in the 15th minute when Mohammed Ishtiaque scored off a penalty corner.

India increased the lead in the 25th minute when Inderjit Singh scored off a field move making it 3-1 in favour of India by the half-time.

After the break, India earned four penalty corners in a row but could not score. In the 45th, off their ninth penalty corner, Len Aiyappa’s superb flick was brilliantly saved by the Bangladesh goalkeeper. But he could not thwart them for long as the Indians scored twice to complete the tally.

In the 47th, India got their fourth goal when Gagan Ajit Singh was right on target with his pass to Prabhjot Singh who slotted it nicely.

Two minutes later, Inderjit did the spadework for Gagan Ajit to finish the work and get the fifth goal.

India got their 10th penalty corner in the 56th minute but Aiyappa’s flick beat the goalkeeper and went off the bar.

India take on China in their next match on Friday. (PTI)