Bangladesh set up final with India

As expected, Bangladesh advanced to the final of the Boys' U-18 Asia Cup hockey tournament with an easy 6-1 win over Chinese Taipei to set up a final clash against the mighty India, who outplayed Pakistan 3-1 in the second semifinal at the Maulana Bhasani Hockey Stadium yesterday.

Today's final will be a rematch between the two neighbours, who had started their campaigns by taking on each other. That match produced a thriller, with the hosts eventually coming out on top in a 5-4 win.

In yesterday's semifinal, penalty-corner specialist Ashraful Islam scored three goals while Raju Ahmed, Sajib Hossain and Fazle Hossain Rabbi netted one goal apiece for the home side. Chin Feng Liu scored the consolation goal for Chinese Taipei.

Bangladesh came into the semifinal on the back of two commanding performances against India and Oman, but the boys in red and green looked out of sorts in a below-par performance against Chinese Taipei, whom they had thrashed 8-1 in a warm-up game before the start of the seven-team tournament.

Despite taking a third minute lead, Bangladesh failed to establish a stranglehold on the match as they misplaced and miscontrolled numerous passes and showed a tendency to perform individually rather than as a team.

Bangladesh were also poor from penalty corners, cashing in on only three out of 10 opportunities.

“It was a bad day for us because we did not perform exactly how we wanted. But I believe you will see a different Bangladesh in tomorrow's [Friday] final,” said Bangladesh captain Roman Sarkar, adding that the scorching heat as well as his side's failure to play as a team were the reasons behind the poor performance.

However, Bangladesh bounced back in the latter part of the second half to add four goals but not before surviving a few close calls. Chinese Taipei produced some good chances and made the hosts sweat with strong zonal marking to complement their solid defence.

There was a lot of anticipation about India and Pakistan's mouth-watering semifinal, but the match failed to live up to expectations as India pressed home their dominance by taking a 3-0 lead, before Pakistan scored a consolation goal in the latter part of the match.

Although the backdrop of the prevailing Kashmir issue was expected to create a tense situation between the two sides, there was hardly any impact of those circumstances on the pitch. Both sides started at a fervent pace but India soon established control over the match through a seventh-minute strike from Shivam Anand, whose fierce reverse-hit beat Pakistan goalkeeper Waqar.

Pakistan -- who came into the final after firing 26 goals in three matches -- hardly managed to penetrate the Indian backline, while India concentrated on keeping possession and converting penalty corners.

Three minutes from the break, Dilpreet Singh made it 2-0 through a penalty corner before captain Nilam Sandeep took the match away from Pakistan by striking a third goal in the 46th minute. Amjad Ali Khan converted a penalty for Pakistan in the 63rd minute, but that was not enough for Pakistan to stage a comeback.

“We are looking forward to tomorrow's [Friday's] final and we will certainly rectify the mistakes we made in the first match and take on Bangladesh positively,” said Indian captain Nilam Sandeep.