CHENNAI: Poor conversion of penalty corners has been an old problem for Indian hockey. It’s not just the national team. The virus is widespread. At the 92nd All India MCC-Murugappa Gold Cup, champions Indian Oil Corporation, too, were not up to the mark, making use of only seven of the 25 penalty corners they got in the tournament. It’s a success rate of around 28 per cent. Although IOC put up a better show in Sunday’s final against Indian Railways, winning 4-0 and converting two of the three penalty corners, the overall figure wasn’t that impressive.
A team with seven India probables were expected to fare better on this front. Only in the first group match and final did they show some sort of consistency. Against Bengaluru Hockey Association in the opening match, they were on target with three of their seven attempts. After that, things went downhill. Against Indian Navy in another group match they failed to cash in on any of the six penalty corners awarded to them.
In a pulsating semifinal against Indian Army, they won 5-4, but converted just two of seven. Indian Railways did better on this front. Of the 10 penalty corners awarded to them in six matches in the tournament, they converted four for a success rate of 40 per cent. Asked about their below-par show when it comes to taking advantage of this, IOC coach Deepak Thakur said not making use of penalty corners is definitely a worry. “Players just cannot keep running inside the circle. They should learn to score from penalty corners. I don’t know what standards they are maintaining in the national camps,” said the former India forward, who is also an Arjuna award winner.
A penalty corner is awarded for an offence by a defender inside the ‘D’. Many international teams have players who specialise in these. Asked about the problem, IOC captain VR Raghunath, who has more than 200 international caps under his belt, said they were happy that paying attention to this paid off in the final. “Having a success rate of around 40 per cent from penalty corners is actually a good number,” said the player who used to be India’s specialist in penalty corners. However, Raghunath was talking only about the final and refused to speak about the team’s disappointing strike rate earlier in the tournament. nithin.k@newindianexpress.com