Maintaining a clean slate throughout the tournament, the Indian hockey team will take their chances when they take on Korea in the semifinals of the Asian Champions Trophy in Hulunbuir, China on Monday.
Paris Olympics bronze medallist India has been in carefree form in the tournament, registering five wins out of five league matches.
The Harmanpreet Singh-led side started their campaign with a 3-0 win over hosts China and then trounced Japan and Malaysia 5-1 and 8-1 respectively.
India beat Korea 3-1 before bringing out a narrow 2-1 win over arch-rivals Pakistan.
It has been a commanding performance from the Indians as they excelled in every department be it forward line, midfield or defence.
The most promising part of India's performance in the league stages has been the form of the strikers.
The young forward line comprising Sukhjeet Singh, Abhishek, Uttam Singh, Gurjot Singh, Araijeet Singh Hundal and others has exceeded expectations.
Young midfielder Raj Kumar Pal, too, has shone bright, scoring some fine field goals. Besides, veteran Manpreet Singh, vice-captain Vivek Sagar Prasad and Nilakanta Sharma have excelled in the midfield.
The Indian defence too has performed heavily, conceding just four goals with goalkeepers Krishan Bahadur Pathak and Suraj Karkera not letting the team feel the void left by the retirement of the goalkeeper PR Sreejesh.
Harmanpreet, one of the best drag flickers in the world currently, has led from the front and has continued his good form of Paris, converting as many as five penalty corners.
When India struggled for field goals, Harmanpreet stood up with his penalty corner conversions.
Young Jugraj Singh, is right now the fastest dragflicker in the world.
But a knockout game is a new beginning for any side and the Indians can ill afford to take Korea lightly as they can spring a surprise on their day, as evident in the last game they had with Malaysia as they brought it to the equaliser 3-3 to keep their semifinal hopes alive.
Pakistan will take on hosts China in the other semifinal of the day.
The final is scheduled for Tuesday.
Follow us
