Monday, March 25, 2019

Bollywood script in India draw...

KUALA LUMPUR: India and South Korean battled to a 1-1 draw in a match full of Bollywood style drama in the Azlan Shah Cup in Ipoh Sunday.
  India had the match in hand until the last eight minutes, but South Korea survived a barrage of green cards as well as a 40 minute break courtesy of torrential rain.
  South Korea had the better of India until the 28th minute, but three of their players were green carded and they were left only eight to defend.
  Yang Jihun (25th), Lee Namyong (25th) and Lee Seungil (28th) were green carded and sat looking from the sin-bin, as India took the opportunity to attack in numbers and Mandeep nailed the lead in the 28th minute.
  And just when India felt they had the match wrapped up, pouring rain blanketed the Azlan Shah Stadium and the match was stopped with eight minutes to end.
  South Korea came back looking fresher after the long break, and forced four penalty corners before Jung Jung Hyun scored with 20 seconds on the clock to share the spoils.
  India coach David John blamed indiscipline among his players for the draw.
  "Indiscipline is what caused us to lose three points as we gave away too many penalty corners in the last eight minutes after rain. But still, a point is still good enough," said John.
  India defenders gave away four penalty corners after the rain break, and were punished by Jang, who played for Terengganu Hockey Team in the Malaysia Hockey League recently.
  Skipper Manpreet Singh believes rain helped old legs in the Korean team to recover.
  "The plan was to run them down as we have a younger team compared to them, and we did just that. But the 40 minute rain delay helped Korea to recover their 'old legs', and so, it (rain) was a great help for them," said Manpreet.
  After a day's break Malaysia play India on Tuesday.