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Indian frontline fails to deliver
S. Thyagarajan
| Edward Ockenden's deflection sees Australia through |
TOUCH-AND-GO: The young Indian side, which wasted many scoring opportunities, managed to keep the Aussies at bay till the 49th minute.
Ipoh: More than anything, the three encounters on the opening day of the Azlan Shah hockey tournament here set the tone and tenor for international hockey currently experiencing a period of lull.
The coaches were more than circumspect, and paid attention to launching youngsters into serious competition. And India too was in the same mode, under the new coach, Joaquim Carvalho.
Plethora of errors
Any endeavour to evaluate India's 0-1 capitulation to Australia in a single epithet is not easy. From a critical standpoint, the contest was inundated by a plethora of errors, that eventually came in the way of a more honourable result, a draw, perhaps, even a victory. But condemning the performance because of the outcome can be termed as unjustified.
For nearly 50 minutes, India held the reigning Olympic champion scoreless. There were phases when the Indian mid-field, led brilliantly by the pivot, Bimal Lakra, seemed to have had a measure of the Aussie attack. That the Aussie frontline found its famous rhythm deserting it most of the time is another matter.
The wing halves, Prabodh Tirkey, more notably Vikram Kanth, exuded a great deal of confidence. Interestingly, Vikram joined the team only on Friday night here as a replacement for Ignace Tirkey.
Smart saves
Harpal Singh was prominent in deep defence, while William Xalco policed the dangerous Grant Schubert almost throughout. Goalkeeper Baljit Singh came off with a few smart saves demonstrating an appreciable element of athleticism. But, the one that beat him off Edward Ockenden was more an accident than design.
If one segment that needs to be accused for the verdict is the frontline. True, individually everyone who figured in the encounter showed glimpses of stick-work and consistency. Even the newcomers Sardar Singh, Roshan Minz and Bharath Chikkara had their moments to achieve fame.
But when the team looked up to the battle-scarred Rajpal Singh, Shivendra Singh and Prabhjot Singh to fire, the trio proved disappointing. Every one was guilty of flunking a chance or two when a simple deflection would have caused havoc to the Aussie morale.
Predictably, the Aussies utilised the encounter to blood a few new faces to face "the match situations at this level," as coach Colin Batch explained. There were a few incredible errors, especially in executing penalty corners. When the team looked like getting into a state of inertia after a barren first half, the composition was shuffled.
The touch of Brent Livermore, the power of Rob Hammond, the inscrutable runs of Andrew Smith, all came into play. And the Aussies went up even as Smith began tormenting the defence. The Aussies forced four penalty corners in this half, against the one by India in the whole match.
It was Hammond's long drive that culminated in Edward's chance deflection that bewildered goalkeeper Baljit Singh.
Coach pleased
Coach Carvalho was happy, genuinely pleased by the way Roshan Minz, Bharat Chikkara, and Sardara Singh shaped. He was confident that Saturday's result against the World No. 2 would pay dividends against China on Sunday.
The Koreans must consider themselves lucky to gain full points against Canada. The Canadians exhibited more verve, variations and generally controlled the trend. A penalty corner by Jeong Sang snuffed out the Canadian challenge in the second half.
For sheer action and excitement, the best match of the day was between Malaysia and Pakistan. Fittingly enough, it was a 2-2 draw with Pakistan coming into the match after being in the deficit twice. Malaysia led 2-1 at half-time.
The results: Pool A: Australia 1 (Edward Ockenden) bt India 0; Pool B: Korea 1 (Jeong Yun Sang) bt Canada 0; Malaysia 2 (Zulkifli Rejab, Ismail Abu) drew with Pakistan 2 (Ehsan Ullah, Imran Warsi).
Sunday's matches: Argentina v Australia (1-35 p.m. IST); Canada v Malaysia (3-35 p.m.); India v China (5-35 p.m.).
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