India starts off impressively

HOBART (AUSTRALIA), OCT. 9. India began its programme in the World Cup junior hockey championship with an impressive 5-0 win over Canada in Pool C on the opening day of 7th Junior World Cup hockey championship here today.

Both teams were feeling each other out in the first 10 minutes until India wore Canada down, forcing Canada to make mistakes in the defence.

India scored twice within a minute. Captain Gagan Ajit Singh showed his class by defeating two Canadian players with stickwork into the circle and made a simple pass for Deepak Thakur to tap in from a metre in front of goal. Prabhjot Singh dived to put away a pass from the left a minute later for India's second goal, leaving Canada stunned.

Canada's answer was to bring all its players behind the ball but the tide of India attack could not be stemmed. Prabhjot Singh made an improbable second goal with an upright backstick goal from wide and high on the left of the circle to give India a 3-0 advantage going into the break.

India earned three penalty corners in the first half and had two drag flicks disallowed as the ball was not stopped. The indications are that the pitch at one end has a problem with the carpet making it difficult to stop the ball. Spain and Australia experienced the same problem earlier in the day.

The second half started as quietly as the first half. Canada probed but India's defence ensured there were three or four players ready to dispossess any Canadian in possession in midfield. Turnovers to India resulted and put pressure on Canada's defence.

Canada conceded a penalty corner which Jugraj Singh converted with a powerful low drag flick which Shankar Premakanthan in goal for Canada could not get down to cover with his stick as it crashed into the left pocket of the goal. Canada was put under further pressure when Australian umpire David Gentle suspended Aneal Basi for talking.

India continued to dominate field position and possession through the middle of the second half, aided by the suspension of Basi and by the turnovers made by Canada's midfield.

Jugraj Singh converted his second penalty corner with another drag flick, this time high to the left of the Canadian goalkeeper. India had three penalty corners in the second half and had difficulty with stopping only one and converted two.

In the last 10 minutes, the intensity of India's game fell away as the players seemed content to rely on the 5-0 scoreline, even though Spain had earlier defeated Scotland 8-0.

Canada's coach, Louis Mandonca, applauded the effort made by his team. The boys made a great effort and the defense played well, but we were punished by the number of turnovers we made, Mandonca said.

``We needed to slow the tempo down because it is to India's advantage to play too much at their pace, he said. Our objective is to finish in the top 10 in this tournament and to identify the players who are capable of playing at senior level along with Casey Ferguson and Michael Lee, Mandonca said.

India's coach, Rajinder Singh, said ``The win was a confidence builder for the team. The early lead settled the team down and increased our confidence. Our strategy was to pressure Canada from the beginning, Rajinder Singh said. I am very happy that our forwards did not miss any chances to score, he said.

India plays Scotland on Thursday. Scotland lost to Spain today 8- 0. ``I will not take any team as a weak team in this tournament,'' said Rajinder Singh. Look at the result today where Australia drew with Ireland. That was very unexpected. There are no easy teams'' he added.

Earlier, in the first match of the championship European stalwart England justified its early arrival here as its forwards scored field goals to help it score an easy 5-2 win.

England started in style, scoring four field goals in a tally of five against underdog Chile which pulled back one goal in each half.

The first five minutes for England forwards saw them go up 2-0 to set the pattern for their dominance. Jonty Clark received an excellent pass straight after the start to convert in style and put England one up in the second minute.

Sustained pressure by the English forward Jones, Mantell and Webber resulted in a penalty stroke in the 4th minute. Martin Jones made no mistake with the stroke and England was two up.

As the English team relaxed a bit, the Chile team struck back and earned the game's first penalty corner in the 10th minute. The Chileans played an indirect variation and got themselves a goal off a deflection from Gabrial Thiermann to make it 1-2.

The fast early pace soon started to tell on both the teams and the game slowed down in the remainder of the first half. The match tended to get a bit rough too with green cards being shown to Christobal Rodrigues of Chile and Martin Jones of England in the 20th minute.

Chile was on the lookout for an equaliser of its breakaway raids and one such movement earned them a penalty corner as well which, however, they failed to convert.

The half-time discussion pepped up the English team forwards and like the first half, they began in style on resumption with a great individual effort by Martin Jones. Martin received the ball at the 25 yard line and scored with a great flick aimed at an acute angle on the right side of the goalkeeper.

England went further ahead with another field goal in the 49th minute by Richard Mantell. Chile tried its best to fight back and managed to earn a penalty corner, which was of no avail as the English goalkeeper came up with a superb save. The English forwards kept up their pressure and were rewarded with a fifth goal from James Webber who scored through a great reverse flick off a pass from Jon Peckett.

Underdog Chile made the most of a complacent English team in the dying minutes of the game, scoring a field goal through Alan Stein. However, England finished a well deserved 5-2 winner.

Favourite and reigning champion Australia got a jolt when it was held to a 1-1 draw by Ireland.

It was a defence-dominated match with both sides effective in their markings. This allowed the opposing forwards very little space and thus throughout the match they were on the look out for penalty corners.

There were a total of 12 penalty corners in the match and for a fair assessment of the slight dominance of the host, the Aussie team earned 7 penalty corners to Ireland's five.

The Irish team was the first to earn a penalty corner in the 10th minute which they wasted when they tried and indirect combination. The Aussies were quick to strike back when they earned a first penalty corner in the 12th minute. The Aussies showed that they were very well prepared with their variations and Nathan Eglington scored off a pass to the left of the goal.

The remainder of the first half was a story of missed penalty corners with the Irish missing their two chances with effective saves from the Aussie keeper.

The Aussies on the other hand seemed too eager to extend their lead and their three penalty corners were disallowed due to the rolling ball rule. The Australians went to half time with a slender 1-0 lead.

Early in the second half the Aussies were a bit too aggressive as they tried to enhance their slender lead. This resulted in two of their players - Joshua Hawes and David Gust - being shown the green card by the Portuguese umpire Pedro Tixeira.

Once again the second half saw a flood of penalty corners with the Aussie team failing to covert their first one in the second half. The Irish received their first penalty corner in the second half of a bad tackle by David Guest who was shown the yellow card for the incident.

Although they failed to convert the first, they came back with an equaliser off their second penalty corner, with David Hobbs scoring from deflection from the left side.

The host was stung by the equaliser and looked to reassert its dominance towards the end of the first half. The Australians managed two penalty corners but failed to convert them.

The results: India bt Canada 5-0; England bt Chile 5-2; Spain bt Scotland 8-0; Australia drew with Ireland 1-1.

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