Pre-tournament favourites and hosts India overcame a first-half 0-1 deficit to hold Asian Games champions Japan to a 1-1 draw in the Hero Asian Champions Trophy at Mayor Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium in Chennai on Friday. Earlier defending champions Korea was held to a 1-1 draw by Pakistan.

In the third game of the day, Malaysia recorded an impressive 5-1 win over China. Saturday is a rest day.

India, after a flying start against China, found the going tough against fast-moving Japanese who not only matched Indians in every department of the game but at times made very intelligent and deep penetrating moves to catch the home team’s defence on the wrong foot. It was from one such move that the Japanese took the lead in the 28^th minute when it got its first of two penalty corners. Ken Nagayorbi, who took the shot, found the target to the great delight of the Japanese.

Though India pressed hard, working out good moves, they found the Japanese defence too solid to crack. Though India forced as many as 15 penalty corners and with some of the best drag flickers in its ranks, it would not break the Japanese defence. It was late in the second half that skipper Harmanpreet Singh, who scored the first two goals for India in the first game against China, brought cheers to the Indian camp when he converted a penalty corner in the 45^th minute.

Though good exchanges followed after the equalizer, none of the teams could score in the remaining 15 minutes of the game.

Earlier, Malaysia recorded its second successive win to move to the top of the table with a maximum of six points. The hero of the Malaysian win was their mercurial forward Ashani Firhan who repeated his yesterday’s feat when he scored the first two goals against Pakistan, and scored the third and fourth goals for his team in the 45^th and 49^th minutes today.  Earlier, Saari Faizal had given the Malaysians the lead in the 11^th minute with a penalty corner conversion. It was followed by another penalty corner conversion by  Azra Abu Kamal in the 15^th minute. Fifth and the final goal for Malaysia came from the stick of  Jazlan Najmi who also made no mistake with a penalty corner award in the 57^th minute. The lone goal for China was scored by Chen Changuang in the fourth minute. It was a brilliant opportunist field goal.

Prabhjot Singh

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