Hindustan Times: India beat Japan 4-1 in final warmup tie

B Shrikant

The Indian men’s team for the FIH Series Finals has played two warm-up matches in the last two days, winning both comfortably. They beat South Africa 3-1 on Monday and Japan 4-1 on Tuesday.

Warmup or practice matches are like statistics—they reveal a few things, but also hide a lot. The teams want to test a few things in match situations but can’t expose their planning too. It is thus a double-edged sword.

The Indian men’s team for the FIH Series Finals has played two warm-up matches in the last two days, winning both comfortably. They beat South Africa 3-1 on Monday and Japan 4-1 on Tuesday.

The two shortened matches gave an indication of the focus areas for India in the FIH Series Finals here. The matches showed the team has been trying various ways to improve penalty corner and field conversions.

“The past three weeks in Bhubaneswar has been very important for us in terms of getting these aspects right. We have also been working on different variations in PCs having three good dragflickers on our side,” skipper Manpreet Singh had stated earlier at a press conference.

On Tuesday, they scored four field goals. They had converted two penalty corners on Monday. Seasoned forward Ramandeep Singh, making a comeback after missing almost a year due to injury, struck in the first minute followed by goals from fellow forwards Akashdeep (23rd min), Gursahibjit Singh (26th min) and Mandeep Singh (38th min). Japan equaliser was scored by Tanaka Kenta in the 9th minute. The match comprised two quarters of 15 minutes each and a third quarter of 10 minutes.

Though the teams, as expected, didn’t go full tilt, they showed intensity in spurts. With Odisha experiencing a heat wave, the teams can’t take field before 4pm. It thus limits the scope for practice as the two pitches have to been used judiciously to give all teams a chance to acclimatise.

India have had a camp here since returning from the Australia tour a couple of weeks ago and have had some intense sessions. Coach Graham Reid has focussed on areas like circle entries, finishing by forwards, tight marking and tackling by defenders and forwards besides penalty corners. While Chris Ciriello, the analytical coach, has focussed on the three drag flickers, former India forward Shivendra Singh is working with the frontline.

MEXICO DELAYED

Mexico’s arrival in Bhubaneswar has been further delayed and the full squad is expected to assemble here on Wednesday, a day before the start of the tournament.

Five players and some members of the support staff have reached but the rest of the tour party, who were expected to reach on Tuesday night, had not arrived.

Sources said they have faced problems with flights. Some of the players have managed to reach New Delhi while the others are expected soon.

Mexico play their first match against Asian Games gold medallists Japan at 8.45 am on Friday.