Olympic qualifiers -- Indian men run riot, women stumble

The Indian men’s team expectedly ran riot in their opening round “practice match” of the Olympic Qualifiers against Singaporeat the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium inNew Delhi, coasting to a 15-1 win after leading 6-0 at the break.

Earlier, the erratic women’s team suffered a setback after being held 1-1 by lowly Ukraine.

After some close shaves, the Singapore goal finally fell when hat-trick man Gurvinder Singh Chandi opened the account in the 9^th minute. Thereafter, the scoreboard kept ticking with regular frequency in this David vs Goliath encounter as the speedy hosts were able to penetrate the rival defence with impunity. There were as many goals missed as goals scored, probably more.

All the Indian forwards got their name on the score sheet with Sarvanjit Singh, Shivendra Singh (2), Danish Mujtaba (2), Tushar Khandekar, Sandeep Singh, S K Uthappa, Yuvraj Walmiki (2) and S V Sunil (2) being the other scorers. Enrico Marican reduced the tally in the 39^th minute with a top of the ‘D’ shot that nutmegged custodian and skipper Bharat Chettri.

The downside of this facile victory over incompetent opposition was the poor penalty conversion rate of the Michael Nobbs-coached side with drag flicker Sandeep Singh netting only one of the six penalty corners forced. The victory of course does not offer any pointers to the tougher assignments in the later stages as India were rarely stretched.

In an earlier match, the misfiring women’s team stuttered to a 1-1 tie against lowly Ukraine. The hosts had a chance to force a win but muffed up a penalty corner in the dying seconds. The East Europeans held firm in defence for the most part while having a fair share of attacks in the first half. India picked up the pace in the second session but were let down by their fumbles in the rival penalty area.

Ukraine, who had Jose Brasa in their dugout as advisor, took the lead late in the first half when skipper Maryna Vynohradova sounded the boards with a crisp drive off their second penalty corner. Ukrainegoalkeeper Alvina Buddona kept her side in the hunt with several saves, including a brilliant stop off Rani Rampal just before half-time.

The hosts, inspired by the promptings of pivot and skipper Asunta Lakra, equalized when Soundarya Yendala scored with an angular shot in the 42^nd minute after Jasjeet Handa had set her up. Anuradha Devi later had a goal disallowed as she had scored with a raised stick.

Other results:

WOMEN:South Africa beat Poland 2-1, Italy–Canada 2-2

MEN: Canada beat Italy9-0, France beat Poland2-1Ends