India muffed chances galore before a deft deflection from Nikkin Thimmaiah enabled them to pip South Korea 2-1 in the 36th Hero Champions Trophy hockey tournament in London on Tuesday.
At the Lee Valley Hockey Centre, India’s domination earned them the lead through day’s captain SV Sunil’s 39th minute goal.
South Korea equalised through brisk counter in the 57th minute, only for Thimmaiah to reclaim the lead within 30 seconds with a fine deflection on Talwinder Singh’s diagonal cross from left.
The narrow victory ensured India stayed in the hunt for a medal in the Champions Trophy. India now have seven points from four matches going into the last league fixture against World champions Australia on Thursday.
India enjoyed territorial dominance from the beginning and broke into the rival circle on several occasions, but were not smart on the final pass and allowed the Korean custodian to breathe easy.
India’s first foray into the Korean circle was in the 11th minute after Mandeep Singh snatched the ball from a defender on the right flank and sprinted into the circle.
He wasted the opportunity by not squaring the ball to Talwinder Singh and instead tried to himself move up further, thereby narrowing the angle and feebly pushing straight into the goalkeeper’s pads.
Defender VR Raghunath came to India’s rescue with a good save in the 14th minute and also generated the Indian counter-attack, but the strikers were again at a loss of ideas after getting on top of the rival circle.
India’s raids finally produced a goal in the 39th through Sunil, who exchanged passes with Akashdeep Singh and then side-stepped the onrushing goalkeeper to push the ball into an open goal.
Watching the Indians move into the circle, goalkeeper Hong Doop-yo committed himself to moving up to tackle Sunil and that gave Sunil the chance he capitalised upon.
South Korea came back to equalise in the 57th minute through a brilliant deflection by Kim Jun-hu on a long ball into the boards, leaving defender Surender Kumar and goalkeeper Sreejesh stunned.
But a quick retort saw India regain the lead within 30 seconds as Talwinder’s diagonal cross from left went wide of the Korean goalkeeper and Thimmaiah deflected the ball into the goal for the winner.
(With inputs from PTI)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)