Sport

India steamrollers Mexico

Santiago: India maintained its goal-scoring spree and hammered Mexico 18-1 for its third consecutive win in the Olympic qualifying tournament at the Prince of Wales Country Club here on Tuesday.

In other matches, Great Britain put in a fine second-half performance to overcome a fighting Chile 4-1 and Austria kept its hopes alive by defeating Russia 5-4 for its second win.

Mexico showed early promise when it forced three penalty corners in the first five minutes, but the Indians kept their composure and hit back with a vengeance.

Rajpal Singh and Prabhjot Singh did the star turn for India scoring six and four goals respectively, including a hat-trick apiece.

Drag-flick specialist V. Ramachandra Raghunath, who doubled up as a forward, struck four, three of them from penalty corners, while Shivendra Singh (2), Tushar Khandekar (1) and Sardara Singh (1) rounded off the scoring for India, which led 8-0 at the break.

The Mexicans drew some consolation from a goal that came on the stroke of full-time when Pol Moreno scrambled the ball home following a mix up in the Indian defence.

While India, which had beaten Russia 8-0 and Austria 7-3, has nine points, Mexico, beaten 11-0 by Great Britain and 4-0 by Chile, is virtually out of contention for the lone Olympic spot available in this tournament.

“Our aim today was to get into a rhythm and score as many goals as possible so that our forwards would maintain their form. More than the number of goals, I was pleased with the manner in which some of them were struck,” said chief coach Joaquim Carvalho.

India was also keen on creating penalty corners so as to provide Raghunath opportunities to get going with his drag-flicks. “Raghunath did not get to play for long periods in the previous two games and so we wanted to create opportunities for him. In the end, I thought he came up with a few quality conversions,” Carvalho explained.

India, in fact, received 10 penalty corners of which three were converted, a couple of them were placed wide and the Mexican goalkeeper brought off a few good saves.

Carvalho asserted that not much should be read into the three penalty corners early in the match and also the goal that Mexico scored in the last minute. “When you are up against a weak team, you tend to lapse in concentration. The Mexicans did surprise us early on, but once we settled down, it was a different story.

“In the end, we dropped our guard when leading 18-0 and conceded a goal. But I will not attach much significance to these blemishes, since in a tough match we will be on top of our game,” he opined.

Mexico’s lady coach Edith Ramirez admitted that her team was totally outclassed.

The Mexicans put up a game fight, but with Indians scoring at regular intervals, it was not long before their shoulders dropped and the defence simply caved in.

“It is difficult to keep yourself motivated after conceding 10 goals. We tried hard, but then, the Indian team was just too good for us. Ramirez said.

The standings (Read as team, matches played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, goal difference, points): India 3 3 0 0 33 4 +29 9; Great Britain 3 3 0 0 23 1 +21 9; Austria 3 2 1 0 12 14 -2 6; Chile 3 1 0 2 8 8 0 3; Russia 3 0 0 3 4 21 -17 0; Mexico 3 0 0 3 1 33 -32 0. — PTI

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