Hockey World Cup: India beat Canada 5-1, progress to quarterfinals
Bhubaneswar, Dec 8 : An impressive India thrashed Canada 5-1 to top Pool C and seal a direct berth in the quarterfinals of the men's hockey World Cup in front of a capacity crowd at the Kalinga Stadium here on Saturday.
India scored four goals in the fourth quarter through Chinglensana Singh (46th minute), Lalit Upadhyay (47th, 57th) and Amit Rohidas (51st) after Harmanpreet Singh gave home team the lead in the 12th minute.
Canada's lone goal came from the sticks of Floris van Son in the 39th minute.
By virtue of this win, India finished on top of Pool C with seven points ahead of world no.3 Belgium on account of better goal difference.
Belgium, too on seven points, finished second ahead of third placed Canada after thrashing South Africa 5-1 in the other Pool C game earlier in the day. South Africa crashed out of the tournament.
While India qualified directly for the quarterfinals by being the toppers, Belgium and Canada will play in the cross-overs for a place in the last-eight round.
Canada too overcame South Africa by virtue of a better goal difference. Both the teams finished their pool engagements with one point apiece.
India will play their quarterfinal match on December 13.
Earlier in the day, Olympic silver medallist Belgium outclassed South Africa 5-1 in their last pool game.
Alexander Hendrickx (14th, 22nd minutes) scored a brace while Simon Gougnard (18th), Loick Luypaert (30th) and Cedric Charlier (48th) were the other goal-scorer for Belgium.
South Africa, on the other hand, had stunned the world no.3 side just 36 seconds from the start through Nicholas Spooner's field strike.
The match between India and Canada was touted to be a battle between attack and defence and it panned out exactly the same as the hosts attacked in numbers from the onset to create quite a few scoring chances.
India's first scoring chance came in the ninth minute when skipper Manpreet Singh's cross from the left flank was met by Dilpreet Singh in the near post but the Canadian goalkeeper Antoni Kindler positioned himself at the right spot to thwart the danger.
In the next minute, India got their first penalty corner but Canada defended stoutly.
Mandeep Singh was then denied by a good reflex save by the Canada keeper.
The Canadian defence finally surrendered in front of India's relentless attack when Harmanpreet converted the home team's second penalty corner in the 12th minute.
The Indians had another penalty corner in the next minute but Amit messed up the chance.
The hosts couldn't live up to the tempo with which they played in the first quarter, which meant scoring chances subsided as Canada tried to make a comeback.
Canada goalkeeper Kindler came to his side's rescue twice in the second quarter to keep the scoreline under check.
First Kindler saved Sumit's reverse shot from top of the box in the 22nd minute and then kept away Akashdeep Singh's attempt after he was set up by Simranjeet Singh's burst from 25 yards.
The script, however, changed a little bit after the change of ends with Canada slowly clawing back into the match with some impressive counter-attacks.
Canada are considered as a solid defensive unit and they played like one. Whenever India attacked, a sea of red assembled inside their circle to keep the hosts at bay.
Canada drew parity against the run of play in the 39th minute through a counter-attack. Gordon Johnston found James Wallace just outside the circle, who dribbled past two Indian defenders to set it up for Floris van Son who didn't make any mistake to complete a fine goal.
Stunned by the equaliser, India went all out and, in the process, scored two quick goals to take a 3-1 lead.
First Chinglensana scored from a rebound and then in the very next minute Lalit slotted the ball in after snatching it just outside the box from Sukhi Panesar.
Four minutes later, Amit converted India's fourth penalty corner before Lalit scored his second goal of the day, tapping in Sumit's pass.
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Confident we are going to win Kerala: Shashi Tharoor
New Delhi (PTI): Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday expressed confidence in the victory of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala, saying the Congress-led alliance will win more than 75 seats out of the total 140 in the state.
Tharoor, who hails from Kerala, said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls, most of which predicted a victory for the UDF that has been out of power for 10 years in the state.
"We have been on the ground. I have campaigned in 59 constituencies across 12 districts out of 14. I was very confident we are going to win.
"Everything that I have picked up from not just my party colleagues and workers but also from other observers, media and others have always convinced me that we were going to score a comfortable win of above 75 seats. And all the (exit) polls have confirmed the same thing," he told reporters here.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls but in general he was not a big fan of exit polls in India.
"Because ours is not purely a homogenous society. We have to take into account gender issue, caste issue, class issue, regional disparities. You never get a convincingly large enough sample to give an accurate poll and now there is the additional complication that we have heard about in West Bengal this year that many people are unwilling to answer the questions of the pollsters," he said.
The Congress leader said normally, it used to be below 10 per cent that people said that they would not answer.
"Even if you are a reputable exit pollster, in Bengal, one polling company has said 60 per cent of people refused to answer. So, what is the worth of a poll where 60 per cent of your respondents have not answered," he said.
Several exit polls on Wednesday predicted a comeback by the Congress-led UDF in Kerala after 10 years, dethroning the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF).
Polling for the 140-member Kerala assembly was held on April 9. Results of assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Puducherry, besides Kerala, will be announced on May 4.
