India unable to break gritty South Africans

09/12/2001

THE match belonged to India but South Africa walked away with one point at
the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil yesterday.
On Friday, India beat Belgium 1-0 while South Africa defeated Argentina
3-2, so India and South Africa both have four points after two matches and
are very much in the running for the Champions Trophy ticket.
India showed their true colours yesterday against South Africa after a
sluggish start against Belgium in their opening match on Friday.
Yesterday, India played as team and created numerous chances in the
first 10 minutes of play itself and were rewarded by the first penalty
corner of the match.
In the ninth minute, Baljit Singh rushed in to flick after a dead stop
but did a dummy and turned right to allow Jugraj Singh to come from behind
and unleash a powerful shot into the net. Jugraj is an up-and-coming
penalty corner flicker as he scored seven penalty corner goals in the
Junior World Cup in Hobart when India won the gold.
South Africa did not crack after the first goal and mounted a counter-
attack right after the re-start to win a penalty corner.
Justin King punished the Indian runners, who were slow coming out of the
goalmouth, with a scoop which caught Indian keeper Jude Menezes lying
stretched out on the artificial turf.
India looked calm and composed after that and in the 11th minute,
Dhanaraj Pillay made a solo run on the left to beat three South Africans
to win another penalty corner.
But this time, Baljit and Jugraj got entangled in a difficult setpiece
and South Africa were let off the hook, but not for long.
India kept up the pressure and in the 16th minute, Deepak Thakur pushed
in a rebound for the lead again.
It all started with a penalty corner in which the ball was not properly
stopped and Jugraj, waiting outside the semicircle, picked up the loose
ball and beat two players before unleashing a powerful shot which South
African goalkeeper Chris Herbert palmed away.
The ball fell at Deepak's feet and the forward made no mistake. In the
first 15 minutes of the second half, India shut South Africa out of the
match completely as Prabhjot Singh and Dhanaraj ran rings around their
opponents but Herbert stood his ground and denied India a bigger lead.
After Arjun Halapa was shown the yellow card in the 55th minute South
Africa looked more confident and started attacking again and won a penalty
stroke because Lazarus Barla stopped the ball with his boots in the
semicircle.
The situation was tensed as Craig Fulton stepped up to take the stroke
and flicked to the right but Jude Menezes pulled of a great save and India
celebrated like they had already won the Champions Challenge title.
But in the 60th minute, Fulton made up for the bungle with a cheeky
deflection off a Mike Cullen pass from the right to bring South Africa
back on level terms with India. jugjet@nstp.com.my
(END)