Thaindian News

By Anand Philar
New Delhi, Oct 10 (IANS) Riding high on near-hysterical support from the overflowing stands, India crushed Pakistan 7-4 to storm into the semifinals of the men’s hockey competition at the 19th Commonwealth Games here Sunday.

India finished second behind Australia in Pool A with nine points and take on Pool B toppers England in the semifinal here Tuesday. Australia face New Zealand in the other semifinal.

Earlier, Australia romped to their fourth win by soundly thrashing Malaysia 7-0 while England overcame South Africa 2-1 and Canada came within two minutes of making the semi-final grade, but eventually drew 1-1 with New Zealand.

Indeed, India put on a dazzling display befitting royalty and in the presence of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi as they ran circles around Pakistan, who were done in by the aggression, slick passing and clinical finish of the home team.

Penalty corner specialist Sandeep Singh started the Indian party with two conversions first up (2nd, 11th), followed by Shivendra Singh (19th and 59th), Saravanjit Singh (20th), Dhanish Mujataba (40th) and Dharamvir Singh (46th).

On their part, Pakistan showed only flashes of brilliance and their famed fighting spirit to knock in two goals by Muhammad Imran (27th) and Mumahmmad Rizwan (30th) in a space of three minutes. Irfan Muhammad (57th) and Shakeel Abbasi (67th) were the other scorers.

India could not have hoped for a better start than five penalty corners within 11 minutes and Sandeep converted the first and fifth.

The Pakistan defence was at sixes and sevens in the face of the furious Indian onslaughts as virtually every penetration by the home forwards resulted in a penalty corner.

Past the 19th, Sandeep unleashed a brilliant left-to-right diagonal long shot that Shivendra, positioned behind the Pakistani defenders flicked home to put India 3-0 in the lead.

A minute later, Sarvanjit was lying handy to push home a poor clearance from the sixth penalty corner and the packed stands went into frenzied celebrations.

Thus, a 4-0 lead in just 20 minutes was simply unbelievable, but it accurately reflected India’s dominance that left the Pakistanis all but shell-shocked.

But not for long as Pakistan earned their second penalty corner in the 26th minute and Rehan Butt’s rebound attempt struck Vikram Pillay on the foot leading to a penalty stroke that Imran converted and Pakistan were in the hunt.

Three minutes later Rizwan got a deflection to Irfan’s cross hit from the right as Pakistan reduced the leeway.

In the final minute of the half, India received two back-to-back penalty corners, their seventh and eighth, but could not convert. Pakistan protested both the awards while the Indians claimed a penalty stroke off the second, but their pleas were rejected.

Pakistan began the second-half far more confidently and a couple of chances came their way, but were wasted.

It was not long before India got going and Mujtaba banged home a penalty corner rebound in the 40th and Dharamvir pushed home a Shivendra pass and India were up 6-2.

Pakistan pulled one back when Irfan flicked into net from a penalty corner, but India hit back with a stunning counter-attack that saw captain Rajpal Singh finding Shivendra with a through ball and the striker made no mistake with a powerful drive to goal.

With a four-goal cushion, India relaxed just a bit and it allowed Abbasi to streak in from the right and flick past goalkeeper Bharat Chhetri for the final goal of the night.