Struck by the Malaysian jinx for almost the entire second half and extra time, India came alive during the penalty strokes to enter the final of the hockey tournament at the Afro-Asian Games. The Indians converted all five chances to the Malaysians’ three. In Friday’s final, they meet Pakistan who beat Asian Games champions South Korea 2-0 earlier today. India round-up After a disappointing day yesterday, India had one of the best days of the meet so far. The shooters were bang on target, athletes had a rich haul and both the soccer team and tennis players kept their hope of the yellow metal alive: ATHLETICS: Anju Bobby George, discus thrower Anil Kumar and heptathlete JJ Sobha won gold medals as India scooped up nine medals from athletics. India’s silver winners today were Saraswati Saha (women’s 200m), Jasmine Kaur (10,000m) and Arun D’Souza (3000m steeple chase). Finishing in third place to win the bronze were Jagdish Bishnoi (javelin) and Soma Biswas (heptathlon) and the men’s 4x100 relay quartet of CT Durai, Sandeep Sarkaria, Piyush Kumar and Sanjay Ghosh. FOOTBALL: Veteran striker IM Vijayan and captain Bhaichung Bhutia scored a brace each as India survived some anxious moments before prevailing over a fighting Zimbabwe 5-3 to enter the football final. In the final, India will meet Uzbekistan who defeated Rwanda by a golden goal through Boyev Konstantin after the scores were level at 1-1 in the other semi-final. SHOOTING: Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Anjali Bhagwat won gold medals as India put up a sterling show, picking up two of the three golds at stake on the fourth day of the shooting competition. Rathore bagged the gold with a total of 174 points in the men’s double trap while Anjali claimed her maiden gold in the games in 50m rifle 3-position event with a total of 675.5 points. India now has three golds, six silver and two bronze from the shooting range. TENNIS: Top-seeded Indian pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna outplayed Adelo Abadia and Johnny Arcilla of Phillipines 6-3, 6-2 to storm into the tennis doubles final. In the women’s section, Sania Mirza and Rushmi Chakravarthy scored contrasting wins in the semi-finals to set up an all-India summit clash in the women’s singles event.’ Given the reputation of their opponents for playing a stifling game, one expected the Indian side to show more imagination. The stage was set for Rajinder Singh to prove his critics wrong with fresh strategy but he failed. Everyone — including, possibly, their opponents — knew that India would go all out in the first 15 minutes of the match; the Malaysians have a weak attack and that approach works best against them. However, with the Indians missing several chances in the first half, there was no attempt to change the pace and switch flanks. For the first time Viren Rasquinha — who again excelled — was being utilised as an attacking midfielder and he seemed to be only player in charge when the game was slipping away in the second half. Though it was India who scored first, they were rudely jolted by a rejoinder from the Malaysians who pulled back one immediately in the next minute in what is known as the ‘vulnerable moment’. Most top strategists believe all teams should defend immediately after taking the lead. However, the Indians have been conceding mistakes after scoring since the Asia Cup in Malaysia and it was no different this time too. The Indian think-tank has another question to answer: before this tournament, drag-flicker Len Ayyappa was the designated successor to the injured Jugraj Singh. However, despite a poor penalty-corner conversion rate, Ayyappa was put on the job only once, that too late in the match. India’s last two matches in this tournament have been against quality opposition; the only real star missing is Pakistan’s drag-flick expert Sohail Abbas. The absence of a good ‘screen’ showed in the forwardline who could feed the goalpoachers — Gagan Ajit Singh, Deepak Thakur and Prabhjot Singh. Before this tournament, this vital role was shouldered by Dhanraj Pillay and Baljit Singh Dhillon — both have been rested for the tournament but the think-tank should consider this while finalising the team for the Olympics qualifying tournament.
