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Big victories on day 2 of Asia Cup

John Lee

Big victories were the order of the day in the fifth Asia Cup Hockey tournament at the National Hockey stadium in Bukit Jalil today. Reigning champions South Korea opened the second day's proceedings with a 4-0 victory over Bangladesh, then Malaysia whipped Hong Kong 8-1, and in the last match of the day Pakistan trounced Sri Lanka 15-0.

South Korea showed the stuff they are made off as they systematically demolished Bangladesh after taking time to settle down. Bangladesh should thank their goalkeeper Rasel Khan Bappi for the small margin of defeat. His sterling display prevented what should have been a dozen to none verdict.

Korea opened the scoring in the 12th minute off a penalty-corner through Seong Hwan Ji, but thereafter were unable to beat Bappi till the lemon break.

With Seok Kyo Shin coming in after the change of ends, the Koreans midfield got more organised and that enabled their forwards splinter through the Bangladesh defence more often. Their efforts paid off in the 39th minute when, from a penalty-corner, Jung Chul Kim scored to increase the lead to 2-0.

From then all, there was nothing the hapless goalkeeper Bapi could do to stop the marauding Koreans. In the 49th minute, Kwang found the mark from a one-two effort to make it 3-0 before Kang scored off a deflection in the 62nd minutes to complete the rout.

As expected Malaysia were streets ahead against Hong Kong in the second match of the day. Malaysia's captain Mirnawan Nawawi and former skipper Nor Saiful Zaini scored a brace of goals each. Suhairi Saidi, Kuhan Shanmuganathan and Mirnawan Nawawi put Malaysia 3-0 up in the first half, before Keevan Raj, Saiful Zaini, Gobinathan, Nawawi (second goal) and Saiful (second goal) could pump in five more in the second.

Hong Kong skipper Farooq Saeed scored from a penalty-corner to reduce the margin.

In the concluding match of the day, Pakistan displayed the skill of yore as Sohail Abbas, who was in the world team, scored seven goals from penalty-corners to humble a lowly Sri Lanka.

Abbas showed why he is today rated as one of the best penalty-corner exponents in the game as he found the mark from the first five penalty-corners that Pakistan forced, and then two more. Pakistan had totally 11 penalty-corners and converted nine.

The other scorers were Naved Iqbal (2), Atif Bashir (3), Mohammed Sarwar (1), Kashif Jawed (1) and Ali Raza (1), all field goals.