India romp into Jr Asia hockey final

India are a match away from claiming the coveted Junior Asia Cup hockey title.

In the semifinals of the tournament, at Ipoh on Friday, they overwhelmed South Korea 7-1.

In the final, India will clash with Uzbekistan, who defeated hosts Malaysia 7-5 via the tie-breaker, after the teams were locked 2-2 at the end of the full time and extra-time.

The easy victory was the outcome of a total team effort. The Indians were a transformed lot and came up with a good mixture of attack and defence throughout the match.

India, who led 3-0 at the break, dominated throughout against the speedy Koreans. Their game plan was superb and they used both flanks to great effect. The Koreans, at times, counter-attacked well but they could not get past the stout Indian defence, headed by Jugraj Singh.

India went into the lead in the ninth minute through Raju. Nine minutes later, Jugraj converted a penalty-corner and the very next minute, K P Dinesh made it 3-0.

Crossing over, the Koreans reduced the margin following a penalty-corner conversion by Shin Yong Cheol in the 38th min.

But from then on, the Indians ruled supreme and had the Korean defence in disarray. In a span of ten minutes, India scored four more goals. Imtiaz Ahmed netted twice (55th and 61st), and Raju (57th min) and Rajpal Singh (66th min) scored the fifth and seventh goals respectively.