India Squanders Opportunities, Draws with South Korea in Asia Cup Super 4s

RAJGIR: For nearly a week, one and all had been hoping for some rain so that the weather would get better and playing would become easier at Asia Cup.It finally happened on Wednesday, and the weather became great but sadly the same can’t be said about the Indian team as they were held to a 2-2 draw by South Korea in their first game of the Super4s stage at Rajgir Sports Complex here.It didn’t seem to be going that way at first though as Hardik Singh scored the opener in the 8th minute. However, South Korea scored in the 12th and 14th minutes to take the lead. While Jihun Yang converted a stroke to equalize, Hyeonhong Kim converted a PC to put South Korea in the lead.After that, India did their best to get back into the match but were poor overall.Their hard work finally paid off when Harmanpreet Singh managed to create something with seven minutes left on the clock. He played the ball from the left into the D towards Sukhjeet, who took the ball away from the defenders before playing it to Mandeep Singh standing at the far post and the latter calmly put it into the net.After three back-to-back wins in the group stage, it was their first draw of the tournament, and they will look to get back to their winning ways again on Thursday when they face off against Malaysia.Despite the draw though, it was an overall disappointing show by the hosts as the strikers failed to convert numerous chances. They also failed to convert five penalty corners.Earlier, India began well, and Hardik scored the goal of the tournament. After receiving the ball from Sukhjeet, he ran through the South Korean defence with ease.Inside the D, he course-corrected and shifted from the middle towards the right and calmly put it past the goalkeeper's outstretched hand and foot to put India in the lead in the 8th minute.But India’s joy was short lived as South Korea were awarded a penalty stroke after they went for the video referral and Yang converted it in the 12th minute. If that did not silence the crowd, South Korea won their first penalty corner two minutes later and this time Kim found the target.After that India kept trying to find the equalizer, but their poor finishing kept them away from scoring. Abhishek, who scored four goals in the last game, was especially poor. Sukhjeet also missed a sitter towards the end of the third quarter, but Mandeep finally got the goal as the crowd went back home relieved.Earlier, the match began at 8:23 pm, which was more than 50 minutes after the official pushback time of 7:30 pm, following heavy rain that resulted in water logging on the turf. It got so heavy at one point of time that the players were forced to leave the pitch and once it did slow down, the volunteers had to clear the water with wipers.Meanwhile, in the other match of the Super4s stage, Malaysia stunned China 2-0. After a goalless first half and a huge clash that broke out early in the third quarter, Malaysia scored two quick goals to grab the win. Syed Cholan scored the opener through a PC in the 45th minute while Akhimullah Anuar made it 2-0 in the 47th.In the first classification game of the day, Japan beat Chinese Taipei 2-0.