India continue with their impressive form against Pakistan
It was billed as the battle for pride and India were fresh from their 7-4 mauling of Pakistan in the CWG. And they repeated the magic yet again at Guangzhou to continue with their stranglehold over Pakistan
India began the match on an extremely promising note exploiting chinks in Pakistan defence in the very first minute when they won a penalty corner and specialist Sandeep Singh made no mistake in slotting that one into the dashboard to get India the early lead. Pakistan didn't waste a minute though in retaliating and their forward line asked a couple of quick questions of the Indian defence, which wilted as Rehan Butt slammed a superb goal to make it 1-1 in just 4 minutes of play.
While India tried building their attacks on the flanks, Pakistan were more intent playing the rotation ball and relying heavily on sharp counter attacks. Following early skirmishes, both teams were largely intent on playing the waiting game, which even saw Jose Brasa's men guilty of holding on to the ball for too long at times and automatically inviting trouble.
There was a golden opportunity for India again when Dharamveer Singh failed to capitalise on a defensive error by the Pakistani defence. Dharam was virtually on a one-one with the last defender. But, the ace striker didn't let the team down in the very next minute when he completed a superb goal knitted with 4 beautiful short passes and giving India a vital lead going into the halfway stage of the first period.
India lost momentum late in first half
Pakistan got a little desperate at that stage and tried to press on the accelerator without real purpose. Even as they got close to the edge of the danger area, they faltered due to dangerous play. India got away from another defensive error in the 24th minute when Mahdik needlessly gave the ball away to the dangerous Rehan Butt, who combined well with Sohail Abbasi but the Indian defenders regrouped in numbers to thwart the intermittent danger.
The old virus of playing too deep within their own half came back to haunt India in the late stages of the first period but thanks to Pakistan's build up, which was much slower than that of India; the Indian defence had enough time during every such move to get back to their marking positions in time to ward off the danger.
The best moment for Pakistan came in the dying moments when the Indian goalkeeper made a brave save. Bharat Chettri was on a one on one situation with the Pakistan striker Zubair but ensured he put the ball away.
India played out the remainder of the first half with the slender lead but Brasa's boys will need to try and play with a strategy to enhance the lead to avoid unnecessary pressure on their own goal in the second period.
Tushar, star of the day for India
Pakistan started the second half with more purpose with Shakeel Abbassi and Zubair getting early opportunities but both wasting their chances. India got a counter-attacking opportunity, which was easily the best field play of the day with Tushar Khandekar running in the middle and putting a through ball for Shivendra Singh, who just about failed to reach on to the ball.
Moments later, Indian forward line had yet another opportunity to stretch the lead but with almost 5 blue shirts in the box, Indians missed and were glued on to their places in disgust even as Pakistan utilised the golden chance to counter. Shakeel Abbasi finished it off in style to get Pakistan on level terms in the most unexpected fashion.
After the setback, India pressed hard to restore the lead and in the process won a penalty corner in the 12th minute of the second half and once again the master of penalty corners from the sub continent exerted his superiority to get India the lead again. Sandeep scored his eighth goal of the Games and has been the pillar behind India's sudden resurgence in the national game.
India continued with their attacking run and almost pulled off their fourth of the afternoon when 3 Indian forwards got close to the goal only to be thwarted by a scrambling Pakistan defence. There was a brief lull before Pakistan won their first penalty corner of the match in the 58th minute. It was an outstanding save by the guardian Chetri who pulled off an absolute blinder. Indian defence went to sleep again in the late stages of second period like they did in the first half.
8 different goal scorers for India so far at Guangzhou
In a bid to rescue at least a point from the match, Pakistan set off on a barrage of attacks to try and find the equaliser and in the process kept the Indian defence nervy and edgy. It was evident at that stage that India were keen to preserve the 3-2 advantage and that gave Pakistan the added cushion to press more players upfront.
But, India dug in and won a penalty corner in the final minute of the match like they did in the first minute. Although the Indian 'Bovelander' missed that one, India ensured the day belonged to them. With this win, India have completed 3 wins in a row over Pakistan in big encounters. First, the World Cup, then the CWG and now the Asian Games.
The win over Pakistan was huge for India considering they now can top the table and avoid playing reigning Asian Games champions South Korea in the semi final. The team will be playing either Malaysia or China, which on any day is a better prospect than the speedy Koreans.
Sandeep Singh tops the list of goal-scorers in this tournament with an amazing tally of 8 goals so far and what would please coach Jose Brasa is the fact that India so far have had 8 different goal scorers.