Kakamigahara: Captain Ketan Kushwaha scored a brace as the Indian men's hockey team registered a dominant 4-1 victory against Korea in their third Pool A match of U-18 Asia Cup here on Monday.
Kushwaha struck in the third and 36th minute, while Varinder Singh (5th) and Shahrukh Ali (54th) were the other Indian goal scorers. Korean captain Yun Jaehyeok (21st) scored his team's only goal.
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The win put India level on six points with Korea and Japan.
Top two teams from each of the two pools will qualify for the semi-finals.
India started the first quarter strongly, securing an early two-goal lead. In the third minute, India earned the first penalty corner of the match and successfully converted it into the opening goal. Rahul Yadav played an incisive pass to captain Kushwaha, whose shot was saved by the Korean goalkeeper. But Kushwaha slotted the ball home from the rebound.
India built on the momentum and secured the second goal in the fifth minute. Gazee Khan showed great vision to find Varinder (5th) unmarked next to the goal. Varinder delivered a calm finish to extend India's lead.
Korea slowed the tempo for the remainder of the first quarter in an attempt to regroup.
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The second quarter saw end-to-end action from both sides, but neither team created meaningful chances inside the circle.
In the 21st minute, Korea earned a penalty corner that captain Jaehyeok (21st) successfully converted to reduce the deficit in the first half.
Both teams secured penalty corners towards the end of the third quarter, but neither side converted.
In the 53rd minute, Korea came tantalisingly close to scoring when Kim Doyun deflected the ball toward the goal, but Indian goalkeeper Ayush Rajak made a great save with his stick.
The very next minute, India replied with a fourth goal courtesy of Shahrukh (54th), who struck a powerful shot to sound the board and seal his team's victory,
India will next face Chinese Taipei on June 3 in their final Pool A match.
