India squandered a 2-0 lead and succumbed to Korea 3-2 in the Azlan Shah hockey tournament here on Thursday. India and Korea were the joint winners in the last edition.
It was anguishing to witness the new-look squad, led by Arjun Halappa, blown away like leaves in a gale against the pace, precision and pugnacity of the Koreans. The Indian team's inadequacy in defence was embarrassingly exposed.
True, there were phases when the Indians held dominance early in the first half — Gurbaj, Chandi and Halappa held the team together — but there was an utter lack of strategy to guard the lead, leave alone any effort to enlarge it.
A penalty corner by Diwakar Ram, after Mahadik failed to stop the ball well, evoked spontaneous cheer as did the brilliant finish by Danish Mujtaba for the second goal late in the first half. But the Koreans were demanding and delivered a series of quick sallies.
They even hinted at one stage of walking out, protesting against a decision from the Britain's umpire Marin Badden when trailing 1-2.
It resulted from a penalty corner hit by Jang Jong. The team members argued, rather unsuccessfully, and resorted to an ugly demonstration in front of the crowd arguing that the ball had clipped through the netting. Unable to persuade the umpire to change the ruling there was a threat of a walk-out (going by the gestures of the players) until the table officials and the TD intervened.
The Koreans roared back to level at 2-2 when Yoon Suk Hoon scored after the break. Pressing hard, Korea then snatched victory in the final minutes from a penalty stroke which surfaced after Vikram Pillay obstructed Yoon Sung Hoon. Jang Jong made no mistake with the stroke, a blinding push that gave Adrian no chance.
But it must be admitted that Adrian made a few good saves in the match, especially in the dying moments when the defence was reduced to smithereens by a Korean attack taking advantage of the injury to Mahadik. The contrast could not be more telling than in the penalty corners — six for Korea against one for India.
Notwithstanding the spells of ennui, forged by the inconsistent mid-field and poor capitalisation of penalty corners, Pakistan earned more than a flattering victory over the Kiwis. Scoring within three minutes through Rizwan (Sr), Pakistan struggled midway through against the New Zealanders who forced six penalty corners of which one resulted in a goal by Andrew Hayward.
Great Britain showed why it could be a force to reckon with as it scored a 3-1 victory over Malaysia.
The results: Pakistan 4 (Rizwan Sr., Kashif, Haseem Khan, Umar Bhutta) beat New Zealand 2 (Andrew Hayward, Hugo Iglis).
Korea 3 (Chun Suk Woon, Young Sung Hoon, Jang Jong Hyun) beat India 2 (Diwakar Ram, Danish Mujtaba).
Great Britain 3 (James Tindell, Richard Smith, Robert Moore) beat Malaysia 1 (Tenku Tajuddin).
Friday's matches: Korea v Pakistan (1-35 p.m.), Britain v India (3-35 p.m.); Australia v Malaysia (5-35 p.m.).
