Harmanpreet joins party as India earn fourth win on trot

Harmanpreet Singh’s stick had been rather quiet in Hulunbuir City. Having aced the Olympics as the tournament’s highest scorer in Paris, the drag-flicker was expected to score many more goals at the Asian Champions Trophy.

Instead, the India skipper has let the other penalty corner (PC) specialists take centrestage with Sanjay, Amit Rohidas, Jugraj Singh and Araijeet Singh Hundal taking the bigger number of chances in the previous three matches.

But on Thursday, Harmanpreet (9th, 43rd) decided to take two of India’s three PC opportunities, converting both to hand the defending champions a 3-1 win over South Korea. Araijeet (8th) scored the other India goal that helped them win the fourth match on the trot while Yang Jihun (30th) scored Korea’s lone goal at the Moqi Training Base.

Having already booked a place in the semi-finals, India showed their intent to continue the winning streak when they went 2-0 up in the first 10 minutes. Araijeet received a fierce cross from Vivek Sagar Prasad at the top of the circle, turning around to punch in the ball. In the following minute, Harmanpreet scored his 200th goal from a PC to extend India’s lead.

After shaking off nerves in the first quarter, South Korea bounced back with tactical defence, curbing Indian attackers from keeping ball possession. In the last seven minutes of the second quarter, they punished India with interjections and counterattacks, eventually setting up a PC in the 30th minute. Jihun came up with a fine PC execution to narrow India’s lead to 2-1.

The third quarter saw both teams trade equal number of PCs with each earning two. However, only India could successfully put one in the net with Harmanpreet coming up with a powerful drag-flick to fetch his team a 3-1 lead.

The final quarter saw India do well as they dominated possession and resorted to half-press that led to potential counterattacks. Though South Korea made ambitious attempts to score, goalkeeper and Player of the Match Suraj Karkera did well to ensure India don’t concede a goal.

In other matches, Malaysia beat Japan 5-4 while Pakistan hammered hosts China 5-1.

India will take on Pakistan on Saturday.