India thump Singapore 15-1

M.S. Unnikrishnan

India swamped Singapore 15-1 in a virtual massacre of the innocents in their opening match of the men’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament at the Dhyan Chand National Stadium here tonight. India were expected to sweep through Singapore without much toil, and in the end, the victory proved easier than expected.

But there was a disturbing aspect too, as out of the five penalty corners earned by the hosts, and despite having two outstanding drag-flickers in Sandeep Singh and V.R.Raghunath, India could make use of only two, with just one direct hit by Sandeep, off the fifth. Singapore custodian Samudra Chian Ong did a stubborn job under the bar, deflecting the drag-flicks of Sandeep and Raghunath with brilliant agility and anticipation.

Though the Indian domination was almost total, they had to wait for nearly 10 minutes to hit the first goal through Gurwinder Singh Chandi. The second goal followed within seconds from the stick of medio Sardar Singh, and then on, there was a torrent of goals from Shivendra Singh, Gurwinder Singh Chandi, Danish Mujtaba (he scored off the second penalty corner after Sandeep’s sweep was deflected by the custodian) and again by Shivendra to retire for the half time break with a facile 6-0 lead.

But immediately on resumption, Singapore pulled one back through Lathif Abdul, before India resumed their scoring spree. Chandi and Tushar kept the scoreboard racing and then Sandeep got his drag flick right for the first time. Uthappa made it 10-1, Danish Mutaba 11-1, followed by goals from Yuvraj Walmiki, S.V.Sunil, Tushar and Birendra Lakra in that order.

At close, the only point of interest was who was the Indian player who could not score a goal, and there were not too many of them.

Though every second or third move fetched the hosts a goal, the match was not really a yard stick to assess their game plan, as Singapore simply withered in the second session, unable to withstand the pace and speed set up by the fit-like-a-fiddle Indian forwards and mid-fielders where Sardar Singh stood out. Earlier in the day, Canada blanked Italy 8-0 while France edged past Poland 2-1.

India-Ukraine play out draw

Indian eves played a 1-1 draw with Ukraine to drop a valuable point in their opening match of the Olympic Qualifying Tournament at the National Stadium here tonight.

To confound India’s humiliation, they trailed by a goal in the first half before coming back to equalise on resumption to split points, which may dash their hopes of booking a berth in the 2012 London Olympics, as earlier in the South Africa got past Poland 2-1 while Italy and Canada played out a 2-2 draw.

The Indian girls mostly dominated the game, but lost their way once inside the dee. They invariably lost possession of the ball when poised for the strike, and never even attempted to earn a penalty corner till very late in the second session, when they muffed two penalty corners in a row. A third was wasted during stoppage time play, and though the umpire whistled for a fourth one when the final hooter was almost sounded, the intervention of the second umpire forced the cancellation of the PC, robbing the hosts a final chance of striking another goal.

In another match, South Africa found the mark through Kate Woods off a penalty corner and Pietie Coetzee (field goal) to down a fighting Poland, who reduced the margin through Magdalena Zagajska. Italy and Canada took lead in turn before settling for a 2-2 draw to share honours.

Sunday’s fixtures: Poland vs Italy (10 a.m), South Africa vs Ukraine (2 p.m, India vs Canada (6 p.m).