India sought to correct its poor South Asian Games football record by convincingly outsmarting holder Bangladesh 3-0 in the first semifinal at the Indira Gandhi Stadium here on Saturday. Kuman Udanta Singh, Jerry Mawihmingthanga and Jayesh Rane found the target once each to help the host reach the first final after 12 years.
Three-time champion India, which had last played the final in the 2004 Games in Islamabad in which it lost to Pakistan, made the most of the home support to realise the passage to the title round.
The path to the final posed two challenges. The first was about sorting out the inherent disorder in a hastily prepared side and the second lay in overcoming a tough-playing opponent.
The host tackled both issues quite efficiently under its young coach Lee Johnson, who termed the win a journey from chaos to cosmos.
The India under-23 team established its superiority after some initial hesitancy when Udanta Singh found the net from a 21st minute opportunity presented by a faulty clearance by the Bangladesh defender and captain Razaul Karim (Senior).
Udanta showed the right goal-poaching skills that compensated for the sluggishness of the team’s main striker Halicharan Narzary.
Young Jerry Mawihmingthanga, playing in a withdrawn position behind Narzary in the Indian attack, got the next goal with a rasping right-footer from the top of the box in the 41st minute.
The two-goal deficit at half-time compounded the frustration of the visitor, which resorted to rough play to upset the rhythm of the host.
Bangladesh’s insipidity on the field was compensated by the dramatics of its Spanish coach Gonzalo Sanchez Moreno, who made violent gestures while mouthing audible objections to the decisions of Nepalese referee Laba Khatri.
As the coach refused to relent after a few warnings he was sent off the ground in the 62nd minute.
A couple of minutes later Bangladesh conceded the third goal when Udanta Singh released Jayesh Rane to do the finishing act and complete the hosts dominance.
Taking the cue from their coach, Bangladesh players also got involved in unsporting behaviour as they kept rushing to the referee and his assistants at almost every decision.
Things came to such a pass that Khatri was mobbed by the visiting players after the match and the match supervisor had to flash a red card at Jamal Bhuyan (Senior) in a bid to prevent them from turning more violent.
Indian will take on Nepal, which beat Maldives 4-3 in extra-time in the other semifinal.
The result: Semifinal: India 3 (Kuman Udanta Singh 21, Jerry Mawihmingthanga 41, Jayesh Rane 64) bt Bangladesh 0.
