Tushar Khandekar and Yuvraj Walmiki scored two goals each as India spanked Poland 7-0 to enhance its chances of finishing on top of Pool ‘A' in the Champions Challenge hockey tournament here on Tuesday.
India now has seven points from three matches.
Complete domination
India completely dominated Poland, which has lost all its three preliminary league matches by huge margins.
To start with, India had a narrow shave in the 11th minute when Polish captain Dariusz Rachwalski's deflection on a penalty corner went just wide.
Walmiki opened the scoring in the 19th minute when he deflected Manjeet Kulu's long diagonal shot past the goalkeeper. Shivendra Singh then capitalised on a Danish Mujtaba pass for India's second goal in the 23th minute.
Walmiki's opportunistic 33rd-minute strike produced his second goal to give India a 3-0 lead at half-time. Manpreet Singh capitalised on S.V. Sunil's pass in the 44th minute to continue the scoring spree in the second session.
Birender Lakra slammed in a reverse shot in the 53rd minute before Khandekar scored a brace in the 55th and 70th minutes.
Earlier, in Pool ‘B' action, Pedro Ibarra and Agustin Alejandro Mazzilli scored two goals each as Pan-American champion Argentina bounced back from a half-time deficit to outplay Malaysia 5-2 and top the pool. Argentina finished with seven points through two wins and a draw.
Japan pulled off a surprise 2-1 win over Canada to take the second spot in the four-team group, with five points from a win and two drawn matches.Canada had three points from the win over Malaysia, which just secured a single point from the draw against Japan.
Canada took the initial lead against Japan in the third minute through Iain Smythe, and Japan equalised five minutes before half-time on a penalty stroke conversion by Koji Kayukawa. Hiroki Sakamoto scored the winner.
The results: India 7 (Yuvraj Walmiki 2, Shivendra Singh, Manpreet Singh, Birender Lakra, Tushar Khandekar 2) bt Poland 0; Japan 2 (Koji Kayukawa, Hiroki Sakamoto) bt Canada 1 (Iain Smythe); Argentina 5 (Pedro Ibarra 2, Agustin Alejandro Mazzilli 2, Rodrigo Nicolas Vila) bt Malaysia 2 (Azlan Misron, Amin Rahim).
