Asian Champions Trophy: Indians run rings around Japanese defence, storm into summit clash

Setting the ball rolling: Akashdeep exults after sounding the boards for India’s first goal.
| Photo Credit: M. VEDHAN

India stayed on course for a fourth Asian Champions Trophy with a comprehensive 5-0 win against Japan, not only avenging the 1-1 draw in the league stage but also making its superiority evident, dominating the proceedings all through. It will now face Malaysia, playing its maiden ACT final, after the latter eliminated defending champion Korea from the competition with a 6-2 win.

A penalty corner in the 2nd minute was saved and Japan raced for a counter, only to be thwarted by the Indian defence. Kosei Kawabe failed to connect a Kentaro Fukuda cross in the 17th minute. Its defence tried gamely to hold up initially, not allowing the Indians space to take their shots. But with the Indians swarming all over, it was only a matter of time.

It was an India show all the way and there was more than one star. Hardik and Sumit controlled the midfield, playing up high to assist the attack as well, and were the creators for India’s first goal that saw Akashdeep slam into the net. Amit Rohidas and Varun Kumar performed defensive duties and Shamsher was impressive as always as the silent playmaker.

But it was largely a Manpreet Singh show.

The former captain got the third goal that was officially credited to Mandeep Singh but had the former captain written all over it, taking control on the 23-yard line, wrong-footing two defenders and shooting from the top circle for the slightest deflection.

He did all the hard work before setting up Sumit for the fourth. Manpreet was the man on right, left and centre, attacking and holding.

There were also quite a few that couldn’t find the final touch.

Earlier, Malaysia beat Korea both on speed and control, with Korea managing to get its chances but failing to capitalise on them. Korea, in fact, took the lead in the second minute itself and the teams were level at 2-2 at the end of the first quarter but as the match went on, Malaysia began pacing itself, with periods of high-pressing — that inevitably resulted in a goal or a PC — followed by sitting deep in defence.

The Koreans, on the other hand, left gaps both in the middle and defence and shooting off target when they had a chance.

Jihun Yang even missed a penalty stroke in the 43rd minute, his shot easily saved by Hafizuddin Othman who was Malaysia’s standout performer.

Pakistan, meanwhile, avoided the wooden spoon with a comprehensive 6-1 victory against China, playing freely and dominating completely.

The results:

Semifinals: India 5 (Akashdeep Singh 19, Harmanpreet Singh 23, Mandeep Singh 30, Sumit 39, Selvam Karthi 51) bt Japan 0.

Malaysia 6 (Abu Kamal Azrai 3, Jazlan Najmi 9 & 21, Faizal Saari 19, Shello Silverius 47 & 48) bt Korea 2 (Ji Woo Cheon 2, Jong-hyun Jang 14).

5-6 playoff: Pakistan 6 (Mohd. Ammad 10 & 52, Mohd. Khan 11 & 12, Abdul Shahid 15, Abdul Rana 55) bt China 1 (Benhai Chen 35).