Sultan Azlan Shah Cup 2019: India crush Canada to qualify for the finals  

India exhibited dominating and skillful hockey in their fourth league match against Canada, played at Ipoh, Malaysia on Wednesday. Right from the word go, the Indians played aggressive hockey and scored goals with ease.

In the 12th minute, Varun Kumar scored from a penalty corner to give India a 1-0 lead. The Indians continued to attack the Canadian defense. but Canada produced some fast moves only not to penetrate Indian defense. At the end of the first quarter, the scores were 1-0 in favour of India.

The second quarter saw both teams competing to dominate the game and score goals in the first few minutes. In the 20th minute, Mandeep Singh scored a brilliant field goal to give India 2-0 lead. The Indian team continued to attack the Canadian defence and earned two successive penalty corners but failed to profit from them.

Mandeep Singh scored another field goal in the 27th minute to increase the lead to 3-0. Two minutes later, Mandeep Singh scored his third goal and consolidated India’s lead to 4-0 by half time.

The third quarter saw Mark Pearson scored the Canadians' first goal from a penalty corner in the 35th minute. Amit Rohidas converted a penalty corner in the 39th minute to give India a commanding 5-1 lead and maintained the same till the end of the quarter.

The fourth quarter was an action-packed one as both teams made efforts and scored two goals each between the 50th and 58th minute of the game. In the 50th minute, Canadian Fin Boothroyd scored a field goal to reduce the margin to 2-5. India scored their sixth goal with a field goal through Vivek. James Wallace converted a penalty corner into a goal in the 57th minute to reduce the gap to 3-6. In the 58th minute, Nilkanta scored a field goal to help India finish the game 7-3.

With this win, India moved into the finals of the tournament against South Korea. India will play their last league match against Poland on March 29.