India level with Australia in World Junior Hockey
Vice captain Dilip Tirkey and Rajiv Mishra turned it on in a brilliant performance that saw India thrash Cuba 8-0 in a Pool A match in the sixth Junior World Cup hockey tournament at Milton Keynes.
India are now level with Australia on seven points and, in fact, top the pool on goal difference.
The Indians started the rout in the 13th minute with Tirkey picking up a rebound, off a penalty corner, to slam in. For a while after this, the going got slow with the Indians hanging on to the ball far too long, and falling into their old-time failing of over-dribbling and showing off while better placed colleagues waited in vain for the ball.
In the 26th minute, however, the team picked it up again when Rajiv Mishra dived to deflect a rebound off a Tirkey shot into the goal. At half time, India were leading 2-0 - and had in the first half forced as many as seven penalty corner, only one of which was converted.
Tirkey was again in the thick of the action in the second half, shouldering the responsibility in defense and still making constant inroads up front to feed the forwards. In fact, at one stage it appeared as though Tirkey was playing the twin roles of centre-half and centre-forward. And he in fact got the third goal of the match and his second when, in the 42nd minute, he shot in off an indirect penalty corner.
In the 45th minute, Tirkey again raced into the Cuban circle, absolutely unchecked, when a defender illegally checked him with his stick just as the Indian ace was getting into a scoring position. The resulting penalty stroke was converted by Rajiv Mishra who has, of late, been specialising in the stroke.
India's fifth goal came off the tenth penalty corner when Rajesh Chauhan gave the ball to Senthil, whose angular shot rocketed past the Cuban goalkeeper.
Indian skipper Baljit Singh Saini then got into the act, picking up a Rajiv Mishra rebound to shoot home. In the 59th minute, a move inititated by Tirkey found Chauhan outside the Cuban circle. The latter's shot was deflected in by a diving Mishra for his third goal, and India's seventh.
India by this stage was practically camped inside the Cuban half, and earned their 11th penalty corner in the 61st minute, leading to the eight goal when Gurmail Singh's stinging shot saw Chauhan making no mistake off the rebound, with a neat placement.
With this, India joined Australia as Pool A leaders. However, the pool position remains unclear with India, Australia, Holland and Spain all with a chance of entering the semifinals. In effect, India will first need to win their final pool game, against Belgium, and then await the results of the other matches.
UNI
|
