Argentina, December 9
An aggressive India thrashed China 4-1 in their second Group A match to inch closer to a semifinal berth in the Champions Challenge tournament. India, who led 2-0 at half time, now top the group jointly with New Zealand, who beat Belgium 4-1.
After the disappointing draw against the Kiwis in their opening game, India were promptly on the attack against China and earned a series of penalty corners. They missed the first one but Prabhjot was well positioned to collect the rebound on the second and he opened the scoring in the seventh minute on Monday.
India kept attacking the Chinese goal relentlessly and left the rival defence flummoxed with swift passes but Rifeng Su stood tall and skillfully saved some dangerous shots from close range as well as a strong penalty-corner attempt by Dhananjay Mahadik.
Chinese forward-line missed its chances to equalise on two successive penalty-corner attempts. Play slowed down for a while after that until the Indian forward-line stole a ball in midfield in the final minute of the first half.
Even before the Chinese defence could react, Rajpal Singh deflected the ball into the goal from close range to increase India’s lead to 2-0 in the 35th minute.
Indians found it tougher to penetrate the rival defence in the second half and China reduced the gap in the 41st minute with a penalty-stroke powerfully shot by Yi Song.
Despite a yellow card to Yongxin Cui, India could not score and were also lucky to survive another penalty-corner unscathed. — PTI