In-form Indian men look to confirm semifinal berth

In-form defending champions India will look to continue their unbeaten run and seal a semifinal berth when they take on hosts Japan in a men’s hockey Pool A match at the Asian Games here on Saturday.

The Indians, who had a disappointing FIH World Cup campaign recently by finishing a lowly eighth, looked to have found their mojo at the right time by registering three wins from as many games and are atop the pool with nine points ahead of Japan. India had earlier thrashed Indonesia 13-1, Sri Lanka 16-1 and South Korea 8-2 in their opening three pool matches.

India will take on Bangladesh in their final pool match against Bangladesh on September 28, which they are expected to win handsomely. Japan are also unbeaten with three wins from as many games but have an inferior goal difference, setting up Saturday’s clash as a top-of-the-pool decider, with the winner assured of finishing first.

Dilpreet Singh has been in red-hot form, scoring as many as nine goals to lead the goal-scorers chart, while fellow forward Abhishek too has shown his mettle with six field strikes.

Dragflicker Jugraj Singh has five goals — three from penalty corners and two from strokes.

The Indian forward line looks to be in impeccable form, with Sukhjeet (4 goals) and Shilanand Lakra (3), Rajinder Singh (2) and veteran Mandeep Singh (2) also contributing to the team’s cause. Skipper Harmanpreet Singh also shone bright with four penalty corner conversions from three games but there is a lot to be desired from set pieces as they wasted quite a few chances in the opening three games.

Penalty corner conversion remains a concern for India’s chief coach Craig Fulton, an area which he needs to fix going forward in the business end of the competition.

Fulton, though, is quite satisfied with the performance of his wards in the Asian Games so far after a tough World Cup campaign.

But the South African insisted that improvements in every match is always the need of the hour in modern-day hockey.

“One game at a time, it’s all about us, we have our own process that we need to understand and reach with the same intensity on and off the ball. I think we are on track and doing a great job at the moment,” Fulton said.

“We are looking good, we had a nice reset, we had a good team building at Mount Fuji. The performance so far is just a good reflection of where we are at and where we are trying to improve.”

“We are just focussed on what we have to do, we have to improve and just try and push for as many goals as possible,” he added.