Sandeep’s day out in Guanzhou

V Narayan Swamy

GUANGZHOU: Sandeep Singh couldn’t have enough of the Bangladesh banquet, helping himself to four goals as India thrashed their hapless neighbours 9-0 in a Pool B match on Wednesday. It will have got the Indians into the right frame of mind before Saturday’s crunch tie against Pakistan, who made a rousing start with a 12-0 demolition of Hong Kong.

Japan is the other member of the five-team pool. The runs were incisive and the scoring pattern authoritative but India may not be completely content with their performance as they let go too many chances throughout the match.

Coached by Gerhard Rach, who was in the hot seat for India during the Athens Olympics six years ago, Bangladesh were no match for the Indians. Sandeep himself was unstoppable in the penalty corners but, then, he was up against a soft defence. The only plus point was that his four attempts — the first an indirect one driven home from top of the circle — had variety.

Two were low that caught goalkeeper and skipper Md Zahid Hossain off guard and the other two bulged the roof, indicating that the sardar was in his elements.

Sandeep’s goals came in the 13th, 47th, 63rd and 66th minutes as he converted four of India’s seven penalty corners. Dhananjay Mahadik wasn’t as lucky with his flicks but Sandeep sprang to his rescue saying it was only a matter of time before Mahadik clicked in penalty corners. The forwards too got into the act, Tushar Khandker opening the floodgates and scoring another goal in the 39th.

Rajpal, Shivendra Singh and Dharamvir Singh were impressive in their strikes but the threat of over-elaboration in the circle remained throughout. India got away on a few occasions, were denied by goalkeeper Hossain or had the defence clearing the ball to safety.

Results: Group B: India: 9 (Tushar Khandekar 2, 39; Sandeep Singh 13, 47, 63, 66; Shivendra Singh 22; Rajpal Singh 37; Dharamvir Singh 69) bt Bangladesh 0.
Pakistan: 12 (Rehan Butt 2, 58; Sohail Abbas 8, 29; Fareed Ahmed 22; Muhammad Waqas 24, 50, 53; Haseem Khan 31, 55; Muhammad Imran 35, 61) bt Hong Kong: 0