At last, some cheers for the hockey team

Full marks to the Indian team for their resounding victory over South Korea, that too by a comprehensive margin of 5-2, writes V Baskaran.

Full marks to the Indian team for their resounding victory over South Korea, that too by a comprehensive margin of 5-2. This victory must have brought some cheers and satisfaction to the team management, especially coach Gerhard Rach.

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Truly the architect of yesterday's victory was the nippy Gagan Ajit Singh. He scored a couple of classic goals and also had a hand in all other three goals scored by Vikram Pillay, Prabhjot Singh and Adam Sinclair.

The win was mainly due to the controlled hockey India played in the first half with mid-field players Viren Rasquinha, Vikram Pillay and Arjun Halappa coming up with a good performance. This was the first time I saw there were lot of short passes and also long passes on both the wings which kept troubling the deep defence of the Koreans.

Though the Korean forwards tried hard to put pressure on our mid-fielders, they were not successful. Vikram and Viren had another outstanding day out on the field and showed they were consistent throughout the tournament.

India's display was admirable, especially in the first half which completely belonged to them. The forwards combined well and the short passes between them led to four goals in quick succession. The counter attacks were successful which made the Korean defenders commit many mistakes and cave in under pressure.

Another noteworthy thing about the game was that for the first time in this tournament the Indian team made good use of its left wing with Arjun Halappa and Prabhjot combining well. Though Prabhjot at times played an individual game, he proved he can play some good attacking hockey too.