Doha: Skipper Dilip Tirkey slammed three goals as India handed a 6-0 drubbing to Bangladesh in their inaugural pool B hockey league match at the 15th Asian Games in Doha on Monday.
For India who led 4-0 at half time, Tirkey struck in the third, 24th and 33rd minute getting goals following penalty corners.
Shivendra Singh (29th), V Raghunath (43rd) and Adam Sinclair (54th) chipped in with a goal each.
Though not much of a force to reckon with Bangladesh still were expected to give India a good fight given their track record in the SAF Games but it turned out to be surprisingly easy pickings for the two times champions.
Indians displayed some good hockey and coach Baskaran utilised all the players from the bench alternating them to get them used to the turf. Only goalkeeper Bharat Chettri was not changed.
India forced seven penalty corners and got goals from the first four and in the process young drag flicker V Ragunath also earned his first international goal when he converted the fourth penalty corner.
India took the lead in the third minute of the game when they forced the first penalty corner and Dilip Tirkey’s shot found the target.
After that it took another 21 minutes to get their second goal and this time too their skipper found the target off a penalty corner (2-0).
The Indians increased the pace and pressure to pump in two more goals before the break with Shivendra Singh making it 3-0 in the 29th minute when he dribbled past three defenders and with a superb reverse shot beat the onrushing goalkeeper.
Two minutes before the lemon break, Tirkey was again bang on target when he scored following a melee after the third penalty corner (4-0).
Having secured a healthy 4-0 lead in the first session, the Indians tended to over dribble and played extravagant hockey though there was no need for it. They tried to play to the galleries by displaying excessive dribbling and stick work wasting time in mindless heroics.
The Bangladesh team looked disjointed and played a very defensive game that enabled India to earn the penalty corners.
Indian strikers Adam Sinclair, Shivendra Singh and Hari Prasad showed good stick work and made some good attacks but found it tough to get past the beefed up rival defence.
The fifth goal for the Indians came in the 43rd minute when Raghunath with his drag flick converted the fourth penalty corner.
And in the 54th minute, Adam Sinclair found the target to complete the tally.
The Indian central midfielders Arjun Halappa and Ignace Tirkey played well with Halappa showing good thrust and anticipation in distributing the ball well.
Ajmer Singh also looked good and so was Gurbaj while Tushar Khandekar was as usual hardworking upfront.
Baskaran was satisfied with the team’s display. "We rotated the players. Everybody was given the chance to get used to the turf."
"It is good to start the tournament with a big margin of victory," he said adding, "It is a good start but we have tough battles ahead and we cannot get complacent."
Earlier in the opening pool B match of the men’s tournament, China overpowered Oman 6-1.
(With inputs from UNI)
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