Classification matches commenced on Friday, the fourth day of the 5th Women’s Asia Cup.

Both semifinals were one-sided affairs, the winners India and Japan seemed to have reserved their best for the day.

Japan, which has collective cap of more than 1100 continued its form it showed in the league, by defeating China 6-2 in the second semifinal

Today China was the only losing team to score goals, others Sri Lanka, Singapore and Korea failed to notch up even a token goal.

India reached the second consecutive Asia Cup final. Though the half-time score of 1-0 sent an idea that a good contest was on card, the forwardline came on its form in the second half. Sanggai Chanu and Sulrajlata Devi were the moving force for India’s 5-0 rout of Korea. India lost to the Koreans at the same score in the last Asian Games. However, India defeated full-strength Korea in the pool match of the last Asia Cup too.

Koreans, who ran close Japan and could have even defeated but for missing a stroke, were off-colour today. They did very badly in the penalty corner area, wasting as many as 8 while their rival made use of 2 out of four.

Indian coach M.K. Kaushik, under whose training Indian girls reached the final of the last two major tournaments, did not rise India’s chances in the final. But he is only playing diplomacy as he does not want to hype up expectations. His family and Senior Officers of Haryana government were in full strength to day to witness the first semifinal.

Five more players joined the 40-strong scorer’s list today. The 45 scorers so far have amassed 121 goals in the 16 matches held as of now.

The fourth day witnessed 51 penalty corners being awarded and 9 of them were converted.

For the first time in the tournament, yellow cards were issued. Two stroke converters in the team, India’s Jasjeet Kaur and Korea’s fullback Kim Eun Sil got one each. In fact, India scored its fourth goal when their rivals were left with just 10 players.

In the 47th minute of the first semifinal, Malaysian umpire Nor Piza Hassan awarded a penalty corner but the neutral umpire Monica Rivera of Spain invited her for a discussion. After that the corner was converted into a stroke.

Both semifinals were telecast live today by the national telecasters Doordarshan.

Kazakhstan and Malaysia won their 5-8 classification matches with identical 4-0 margin, but the Malaysians’ score could have been better. They earned second highest penalty number of corners today – 16 — but converted just two.

Only two matches are scheduled for Saturday, to decide ranking 5th and 7th.