Times of India: Confident India look to continue winning streak in Junior Asia Cup

KUANTAN (Malaysia): With back-to-back wins under its belt, a confident India would look to continue its unbeaten run when they take on China in their last pool match of the eighth junior men’s Asia Cup hockey tournament on Tuesday.
India are sitting pretty atop Pool A with six points from two games. The Indian colts defeated Japan 2-1 before ekeing out a close 5-4 win over Malaysia in their second match on Sunday.

Tuesday’s match, however, will decide the fate of China as India only needs a draw to qualify for the quarter-finals.

Going into Tuesday’s match, India will take heart from their previous results against China. To add to it, the performance of the nimble-footed Chinese have not been upto the mark so far in the tournament and this will definitely give coach Harendra Singh’s boys a psychological advantage.

“The one day rest has helped us to analyse our performance in the tournament and look back at the areas of concern. We have trained hard and tried to fill up the gaps in the defence so that we can play a tighter game. We will be hoping for a much more balanced performance in the match against China,” Indian junior men’s hockey team’s chief coach Harendra said.

The ongoing Junior Asia Cup is being held at the Wisma Belia Hockey Stadium. The tournament which started on November 14 will conclude on November 22.

One of the elite Asian tournaments, the Junior Asia Cup will see the top eight Asian hockey powerhouses playing for supremacy.