India dominated the possession, controlled the game, earned a bagful of chances and wasted them equally quickly to split points with Japan with a 1-1 draw on Friday in a game that raises more questions on its preparations ahead of the big-ticket Asian Games than ever.
It was a case of almost the entire team having an off day. The players kept entering the circle and kept hitting wide or over. They kept earning penalty corners — India had a total of 16 PCs through the match —- and were profligate enough to waste 15 of them. The first four were earned back-to-back in the 5th minute itself as India, hoping to go up early, went on an all-out attack. They kept pushing hard, barely allowing Japan any space to counter or mount any offence.
But the lack of cohesion and most of the players being off-position let the team down. The seniors in the forward line — Akashdeep Singh, Mandeep Singh, Gurjant Singh — repeatedly faltered. Vivek Sagar Prasad, Nilakanta Sharma and Sumit worked hard to keep the feeder lines open and even Varun Kumar and Jugraj Singh played upfront, but to no avail.
To their credit, the Japanese did not lose their defensive structure. They stayed close, not allowing the forwards any space to take direct shots. Not that the Indians were trying too hard — the focus seemed to be solely on creating PCs, barring one shot in the 17th minute when Akashdeep tried to shoot from the edge of circle but hit straight to the goalkeeper.
The Japanese runners denied India repeatedly and kept looking for chances to break through. They finally did with two PCs — and converted the second in the 28th minute to take the lead and stun the crowd and the Indian team.
Harmanpreet finally got one, in the 43rd minute, to save India’s blushes. But the questions remain.
Malaysia vs China
Earlier, Malaysia made short work of China with a 5-1 win as the Chinese, despite taking a surprise early lead, were unable to plug their defensive gaps.
Pakistan vs Korea
In the day’s first match, Pakistan earned its first points after a 1-1 draw with Korea. Playing with more purpose and cohesion than the day before, Pakistan scored first, Abdul Hannan Shahid slapping in Abdul Rana’s cross.
With both teams missing their chances, both open and through penalty corners, it required a penalty stroke from Jihun Yang for the defending champion to level.
The results: Pakistan 1 (Abdul Hannan Shahid) drew with Korea 1 (Jihun Yang); Malaysia 5 (Abu Kamal Azrai 2, Faizal Saari, Firhan Ashari, Najmi Jazlan) bt China 1 (Chongcong Chen); Japan 1 (Ken Nagayoshi) drew with India 1 (Harmanpreet Singh).
