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India scores a facile win

Raghunath slots in two to take his tally of strikes to 10

— Photo: AP

PULLING AWAY: Raghunath, who scored two of India’s goals on Saturday, dribbles past Chile’s Matias Amoroso in the last league match on Saturday.

Santiago: India ended its league campaign on a good note with a 4-1 defeat of Chile en route to the final of the Olympic hockey qualifying tournament here on Saturday.

With a berth in the final already confirmed following Britain’s 4-0 win against Austria earlier in the day, the Indians played freely and with confidence, but missed far too many scoring opportunities.

Drag-flick specialist V. Ramachandra Raghunath was again in the thick of things scoring two goals (23rd minute, 61st), including one from India’s only penalty corner to take his tournament tally to 10.

Prabhjot Singh (9th) and Bharat Chhikara (23rd) scored one apiece. For Chile, which defended with great fortitude, Felipe Montegu converted its penalty corner in the 63rd minute much to the delight of the partisan crowd.

India finished second overall behind Great Britain with 12 points, followed by Austria (9), Russia (6), Chile (3) and Mexico (0).

India took time to get into its stride despite taking the lead in the ninth minute when Prabhjot deflected home a Bimal Lakra long corner hit.

Past the 23rd minute, Raghunath found the boards off a Prabhjot pass to give India a 2-0 lead that galvanised the side into more action.

Flowing move

Then followed probably the best phase of Indian display in this session when a flowing move down the middle orchestrated by Ignace Tirkey and Tushar Khandekar finally saw Chhikara letting fly from the right for the third goal.

India began the second-half on a strong note, stringing together a few fluent moves while stepping up the pace. Adopting a ‘full-court press’, it kept Chile under pressure, but a goal eluded it.

Rajpal had the best of chances in the first 10 minutes of the half when he launched a lightning counter-attack, exchanging passes with Prabhjot. However, on entering the circle, Rajpal shot wide.

Rajpal had another great opportunity to score. Put through by Roshan Minz, he was way off the mark in the 53rd minute. Almost immediately, it was Prabhjot’s turn to muff a sitter by shooting straight at the goalkeeper.

Intent on attack, the Indians left their back open and Chile counter-attacked. However, an alert William Xalco intercepted inside the circle and sent Prabhjot on his way. Defender Ian Koppenberger, in desperation, brought down Prabhjot near the centre-line and was sent off with a yellow card in the 54th minute.

Third yellow card

Three minutes later, India received its third yellow card in two matches when Ajitesh Roy was given marching orders in the 57th minute for bringing down Cristobal Rodriguez.

The Chilean defence stood up well to the onslaughts, soaking in all the pressure, but a deliberate foul inside its own 25-yard area presented India a penalty corner in the 61st minute and Raghunath converted.

Chile went on the attack, but Prabhodh Tirkey came up with a great tackle.

However, the Indian skipper dilly-dallied rather than clearing the ball and the host went on to force a penalty corner. Montegu sounded the boards with a carpet shot to trigger celebrations in the packed stands.

Chile’s fightback came rather too late in the day as the Indians withstood an avalanche of attacks to come through without further damage.

In an inconsequential game, Russia recorded its second win in five matches by thrashing winless Mexico 9-1

Final league standings (read as team, matches played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, goal difference, points): Great Britain 5 5 0 0 30 3 +27 15; India 5 4 0 1 39 8 +31 12; Austria 5 3 0 2 15 19 -4 9.

Russia 5 2 0 3 15 23 -8 6; Chile 5 1 0 4 10 14 -4 3; Mexico 5 0 0 5 3 45 -42 0. — PTI

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