India keeps favourite tag

By Kamesh Srinivasan

LUDHIANA, JAN. 23. The equations have not changed one bit, after nine matches, and India continues to be the favourite in the third Asian Schools hockey tournament. It should not be difficult for the host to meet the challenge from Singapore in the semifinals on Wednesday, at the Punjab Agricultural University ground. The flow of goals may have been stopped temporarily, as the host managed to score only three against Bangladesh as against 12 in its opening league encounter Sri Lanka. The rough edges are being smoothened and the Indian forwards, led by captain Raju Singh, have been combining increasingly well, though their excitement in front of the goal has been instrumental towards their lack of accuracy.

Satwinder Singh, Sudhir Kumar, Ravinder Kumar and Bharat should be able to assert their game a lot better against Singapore, to give a menacing look to the Indian forwardline. The halfline has been functioning satisfactorily for India, thanks mainly to the assurance displayed by centre-half Rajnikant. The other two, Satya Parkash and Yoginder Gulia have also been doing well, but need to sharpen themselves a little more to enliven the attacks on the flanks.

Fullbacks Jitender Saroha and Vipul Halwan have been taking turns to attempt the penalty corners, but India needs to work on this department with a lot more attention. The team has scored five of its 15 goals through penalty corners, and the success rate in the two matches has been only 26 per cent, from 19 sequences.

Goalkeeper M. G. Suresh has the distinction of not having conceded any goal so far, and the Singaporeans will look up to Nee Yong Ling Samuel to change that record. Samuel showed his mettle by scoring the team's first two goals against Iran, and he was quite sharp to say the least.

The Singapore coach K. Thanaraj was quite pleased about his team pipping Uzbekistan in the race for qualification. The team needed to beat Iran, preferably with a good margin, and Singapore responded well to the situation with a 5-0 margin to shut out Uzbeks.

A gripping affair

The other semifinal between Bangladesh, the No.2 in group `A' against the topper of group `B', Malaysia, should be a gripping affair. Bangladesh has the wherewithal to beat Malaysia, but the latter has the edge with its all-round game. Malaysia is the only team after India, not to have conceded a goal in the league, and the team will be keen to add to the 12 that it has scored so far.

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Section  : Sport
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