New Delhi: Ruthless stick-work by the Indian men saw them hammer a hapless Singapore team 15-1 in the Olympic qualifiers for hockey, which began here at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium on Saturday.
India, who led 6-0 at half-time, were expected to score heavily against the Singapore team, which is ranked 41st in the world and got a lucky entry into the qualifiers after USA withdrew at the eleventh hour. The hosts showed no mercy in the second half and pumped in nine more goals after Singapore made it 6-1 through Enrico Marican to surprise the visitors.
Gurwinder Singh Chandi scored a hat-trick while Shivender Singh, SV Sunil and Danish Mujtaba scored a brace each. Sardar Singh, Tushar Khandekar, Sandeep Singh, SK Uthappa, Yuvraj Walmiki and Birender Lakra got on the scoresheet once.
India opened the scoring in the 10th minute through Chandi's first strike after Khandekar's incisive move down the left flank. Thereafter, goals became a regular feature of the day's last game with India making as many as 56 circle penetrations.
Sardar (11th), Shivender (18th and 30th), Chandi (21st) and Mujtaba (25th) made it 6-0 at the half-time hooter by when it was confirmed that India were playing much inferior opponents. But to their credit, the Singapore 'boys' never let up, and they were rewarded with a goal early in the second half.
Marican got an opportunity in the 39th minute when almost the entire Indian team was on the offensive and a loose ball saw the Singaporean entering the Indian circle and beating Indian captain-goalkeeper Bharat Chetri with a reverse-stick shot. But India were in no mood to take their foot off the accelerator.
Chandi completed his hat-trick in the 40th minute, this time with assistance from right-out Sunil. It was raining goals in the next 17 minutes. Khandekar (42nd), Sandeep (47th), Uthappa (48th), Mujtaba (52nd), Walmiki (53rd) and Sunil (54th and 57th) piled on the misery on Singapore, who were always behind the nine ball.
Lakra was not to be left behind and made it 15-1 in the final minute of the game to complete the demolition job. Three of these goals were scored off penalty corners.
But this one-sided encounter wasn't anywhere near a test for the Indian defence, which has been vulnerable against tougher opponents. However, Indian coach Michael Nobbs was not worried about that. Instead, Nobbs said the conversion rate wasn't good at all.
"We could have got 25-26 goals. We went in the [Singapore] circle 56 times and we expect more return than 15 goals with that. But we're not going to change our tempo or give anybody respite," said Nobbs in the post-match press conference.
Captain Chetri was also critical of his team's missed opportunities and hoped not to repeat the mistakes in the upcoming matches. "Tomorrow is a different match. We missed quite a few chances and [have to improve] on the short corners," said Chetri.
Earlier in the day, the Indian women’s team was held to a 1-1 draw by Ukraine. They next play Canada on Sunday, when the men's team will also be in action against Italy.
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