Asia Cup Hockey: Gurjant Singh late strike salvages draw for India against South Korea in Super 4s

Courtesy: Hockey India

New Delhi: India played out a 1-1 draw against defending champions South Korea in their first Super 4s clash of the 10th men's Asia Cup hockey tournament in Dhaka on Wednesday. (AS IT HAPPENED)

Unbeaten in the pool engagements and also the highest-ranked India team in the continent, India played an indifferent game of hockey with their star players failing the enjoy the success they have enjoyed against Pakistan, Japan and Bangladesh in their Pool A encounters.

Korea, ranked 13th in the world, played a defensive game but ended up earning the bragging rights following a disciplined performance against the tournament favourites and world number six India.

India enjoyed the majority of the possession, and have had more circle penetrations, but there was a lack of attacking intent, a fact underlined by their lone penalty corner. Coincidentally, Koreans also won only one penalty corner. But with Manpreet Singh & Co, after scoring15 goals in the previous three games of the tournament, should not have settled with one PC only.

After two barren quarters of relatively inferior hockey, Koreans took a surprising lead with Jungjun Lee scoring in the 41st minute from a swift counter-attack after Akashdeep Singh wasted India's chance on the other side of the field.

Blame can be put on Varun Kumar and Sumit, with both failing to read the Korean goals scorer's movement. But it was only one symptom of many ills India had today.

India have had their own chance just minutes later, with a Satbir Singh solo run creating panic inside the Korean box. But his release was failed to control by SV Sunil inside the Korean circle, and India wasted their best chance of the match.

Koreans, having taken the lead, increased their defensive line with more manpower, and resorted the frenetic clearances in more than a couple of instances.

India, jolted by that unexpected goal, even changed roles in the midfield in the hope to surprise the Koreans. Chinglensana Kangujam was seen playing the second role to a more experienced Sardar Singh in the midfield in the latter part of the third quarter. After a period of uncertainty came back-to-back attacks from India.

Pressing hard for the equaliser in the last ten minutes, India even sacrificed their goalkeeper Suraj Karkera in the 56th minute to play all 11 of them as outfield players.

Then came a couple of challenges, one each from either side, in the Korean goal-mouth. Played continued there for the remainder of the game, with Gurjan Singh poaching on the second rebound to slot home the equaliser in the 59th minute, after the Korean goalkeeper produced a stunning save in the first attempt.

The goal salvaged a point for India.

After the first round of Super 4s, Malaysia, thanks to their 3-2 win over Pakistan, are sitting at the top with three points. India and Korea are second and third with one point each, while Pakistan are fourth with no points.

Tomorrow, India will play Malaysia after the South Korea-Pakistan encounter.

India are playing their first international tournament under new coach Sjoerd Marijne, who replaced Roelant Oltmans in September.