India blanks Hong Kong 7-0 in Asian Games hockey opener

Playing at less than optimal pace on a bouncy outside turf of the Aoti hockey field, the Indian men's team started their Asian Games gold medal quest with a 7-0 rout of Hong Kong in a Group B match here today.

With this win the Rajpal Singh-led India notched up their seventh victory over their rivals in the Asian Games and 12th in all tournaments.

Although they did not look threatening, coach Jose Brasa's boys completely dominated Hong Kong in the entire 70 minutes and pumped in four and three goals respectively in both the halves to start their proceedings in the quadrennial mega-event in style.

India plays Bangladesh on November 17, takes on arch-rivals Pakistan on November 20 before ending their league engagements the next day against Japan.

Against Hong Kong, India utilised three out of the six penalty corners they earned in the match with ace drag-flicker Sandeep Singh (4th and 18th minutes) converting two and Tushar Khandker (37th) scoring from a rebound.

Bharat Chikara (2nd), Sarvanjit Singh (22nd), Arjun Halappa (38th) and Shivendra Singh (48th) completed the scoring-spree for India through field strikes.

Two-time gold medalists India, who have come to Guangzhou  with the main aim of clinching the crown which they last won in 1998 and avoid the pitfalls of qualifying for the 2012 London Olympics, displayed their positive intent in the first five minutes of the match when they pumped in two goals through Chikara and Sandeep.

Chikara's opening essay was an excellent co-ordinated effort as he pushed in a centre from the left sent by Vikram Pillay in the second minute before Sandeep made it 2-0 two minutes later.

But then came a phase when India struggled to control the ball at speed and had to wait till the 18th minute when Sandeep scored off the second short corner with a neat drag-flick.

After making repeated forays into the rival citadel, only to be thwarted by the crowded Hong Kong defense, India made it 4-0 through a good field effort when a down the middle charge saw Sarvanjit score off a Vikram pass in the 22nd minute.

With a lowly Hong Kong at the other end, India utilised the match to try out various combinations and tried out Dhananjay Mahadik in taking short corners but he could not score off two earned in succession before the half time.

Crossing over, India once again made a storming start by scoring two more goals in as many minutes.

A penalty corner shot by Mahadik came off rival goalkeeper Leung Hong Wang to Khandekar, who made no mistake in putting home the rebound in the 37th minute of the match.

One minute later Arjun Halappa indulged in a one-two, on the left, with Dharamvir Singh before finding the mark.

India, who got bogged down for sustained periods of play despite having the better ball possession, completed the tally with an eye-catching effort.

Skipper Rajpal trapped a long hit from the centre of the field sent by Sardar Singh, relayed the ball to Shivendra on his right who first-timed it in.

India coach Brasa said after the match that it was an easy first game for his wards and they used it to get acclimatised to the conditions.

"This was an easy first game but it was difficult to play on this pitch as the ball bounces more than normally. Playing the Hindustani type of hockey at high speed was difficult," he said.

The Spaniard said that the team has to get used to the conditions quickly ahead of tougher battles in the group.

"It was also difficult to control the ball during penalty corners. We have to get used to the conditions. The main pitch (where their remaining matches are to be held) is also bouncy, but not to this extent. It was too bouncy and difficult to control the ball," Brasa said.

Brasa said that the league games against Pakistan and Japan, to be played on successive days, would be crucial.

He also said that Pakistan have come here with a new team, which includes veteran penalty corner specialist Sohail Abbas and they will have to wait and see their arch-rival's style of play.

Skippper Rajpal Singh was happy with the positive start and said the team used this opener as a practice tie as they did not play any after reaching here well in advance, on November 5.

"We want to take it match by match. It was a good start for us. We used this as a practice match as we didn't play any practice match earlier," he said.

Mahadik felt that the team is using these matches to get its rhythm and pace right but was not happy with the team's speed during counter-attacks.

"We are trying to settle down to a rhythm. We have been working on our pace during the counter-attacks. Today, it was not satisfactory. We are also not fully satisfied with our penalty corner attempts," said Mahadik about the team's 50% success ratio in set pieces against Hong Kong.

Drag-flicker Sandeep said that the team did not try out all penalty corner variations against Hong Kong today.

"We have played our first match after 22 days (after the 8-0 rout in the Commonwealth Games final against Australia). We have kept some variations to be tried out against other teams," he said.