Rajgir, Sept 3: Buoyed by an unbeaten pool campaign, a confident and determined Indian men’s hockey team will need to lift its game a notch against title-holders and five-time champions Korea when the two sides clash in their first Super 4 stage match of the Asia Cup here on Wednesday.
The Indians finished Pool A engagements with an all-win record, beating China 4-3, Japan 3-2 before demolishing minnows Kazakhstan 15-0 on Monday.
But the results hardly speak of the way India had started the campaign, scraping past China and Japan before the swashbuckling win over Kazakhstan, who were in the tournament for just the second time ever.
But India can take solace from the big win after two scratchy games.
It will also help that the tournament’s most successful team, Korea, hasn’t looked at its best so far, having finished second in Pool B behind Malaysia. The Koreans were favourites to top but got a rude shock when Malaysia defeated them 4-1.
They have struggled in the sweltering heat and high humidity here during afternoon matches, but with the Super 4 games starting in the evening, one can expect them to lift their game after the rest day on Tuesday.
In Monday’s match, every aspect of the game was played well by India, be it goalkeeping, defence, mid-field or attacks.
The most heartening was the performance of the forward-line with Abhishek stealing the limelight with four goals.
Besides the goals, what was more pleasing to see was Abhishek’s positioning and first-time strikes when he got the ball inside the circle.
Sukhjeet Singh, who also scored a hat-trick, was another player who sparkled with his pacy dribbling from the flanks and the sense of calm inside the ‘D’.
The experienced Mandeep Singh has been expectedly brilliant with his stick-work in the tournament so far.