CHENNAI: The city’s second Summer showed no signs of abating on Sunday. While the sea breeze belatedly set in after 6.00 PM, temperatures hovered around the 37-38 deg C mark for much of the afternoon.
But that didn’t stop the fans from flocking to the Mayor Radhakrishnan Stadium for the first time this week. All three stands were filled to capacity and were in good noise for all three games (chants of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ was just one of the many heard on the day).
That noise reached a crescendo when S Karthi, Tamil Nadu born and bred, scored the first goal against Malaysia. It was the sort of striker’s finish that coach Craig Fulton had challenged him to finish a day before the tournament began. Harmanpreet Singh, playing right back, hit a hopeful diagonal from inside his own half. The speculative pass turned into a great ball as it found Karthi who was stationed just off centre on the left hand.
He took one touch to settle the ball before launching a fierce drive past Malaysia keeper Hafizuddin Othman. The goal couldn’t have come at a better time; at the end of a very cagey first quarter where shots on goal was at a premium for both sides. The hosts did have the one gilt-edged chance of the first quarter but Sukhjeet Singh shanked his close-range effort wide.
The goal, though, seemingly gave the Men In Blue the lift they needed. They were quick off the blocks in the second stanza and it showed. Their passing was crisper, the movement had more purpose and they were buzzing like bees. While it was a goalless second quarter, you could clearly see that India, who began the match in third place behind South Korea and Malaysia, were in the ascendancy.
They were having more of the ball, had more circle penetrations, more penalty corners and more shots on target. That technical superiority told as they doubled their lead two minutes into the third stanza; Hardik Singh converting from close range after the visitors failed to clear a penalty corner.
Coming into the match, penalty corner conversion — or the lack thereof — was the raging debate. In the last match against Japan, India’s dead-ball specialists had managed to sound the board once in 15 attempts. In this context, it was a much better night from the top of the D as Harmanpreet Singh, who had one of his best matches in recent times, stepped up to sound the board from India’s sixth penalty corner.
What, though, would have pleased Fulton the most is the way his charges kept the visitors at bay. They were always in control of the situation and it was told. Apart from the one solitary penalty corner, they had no clear-cut chances and were reduced to taking hurried efforts with no conviction.
If anything, as the match wore on, India slowly sucked the life out of the Malaysians who were made to look very pedestrian. The table-toppers coming into the match would have happily thrown in the towel before the final hooter. There was still time for two more goals. After a Mandeep Singh shot from outside the box was cleverly diverted goalwards by Gurjant Singh, Jugraj Singh, for the well-deserved icing on a patisserie cake, completed the scoring from the team’s 10th dead-ball.
In the context of upcoming challenges,the Asian Games in less than 50 days time — this win may not mean much but it would have given some invaluable inputs about the full-strength Malaysian outfit, one of their biggest rivals at the Asian level.
Sunday’s results: China 1-1 South Korea, Pakistan 3-3 Japan, India 5-0 Malaysia.Monday’s matches: Japan vs Malaysia, Pakistan vs China, India vs South Korea. Live on Star Sports Network & FanCode