NEW DELHI: India took full advantage of home crowd and outclassed arch-foes Pakistan by seven goals to four in a strong display of hockey in the ongoing Commonwealth Games 2010 at Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium here Sunday.With this emphatic victory, India stormed into the semi-final stage of the hockey event of the Delhi 2010.Both teams were in the must-win position but it was Indian forwards, Sandeep Singh and Shivendra Singh, who made the difference in the end as they scored two goals each to make sure they book the semi-final berth ousting their archrivals.india dominated the all-important encounter right from the start and scored as many as four goals in the first 30 minutes to put Men in Green in tremendous pressure.Man of the Match for the Indians was Drag-flicker Sandeep who scored two goals one in the third and second in the eleventh minute from penalty corners. Sandeep also helped other forwards score goals as in the 19th minute he set up a goal for Shivendra, who later scored another goal in the 59th minute.Apart from Sandeep and Shivendra, Sarwanjit Singh scored a goal in the 20th minute, Danish Mujtaba added another one in the 41st minute, and Dharamvir Singh joined the goal-scoring spree in the 45th minute to literally maul Pakistan in the highly electrifying clash.
For visitors, Muhammad Imran scored one goal from a penalty stroke while Muhammad Rizwan added one to the tally in the 29th minute and Shakeel Abbasi scored one in the 68th minute. Muhammad Irfan reduced the margin in the 58th minute scoring from a penalty corner but Indians proved a little too big for Pakistanis to get over.
After the astounding victory, India will now face England on Tuesday in the semi-finals, who topped the Pool B. World champions and defending champions, Australia, would take on New Zealand in the other semi-final on the same day.As far as Pakistan are concerned, they will face off with South Africa in the fifth-sixth place playoff on Tuesday.Aggression was the name of the game as Indians took full advantage of sloppy and under pressure Pakistani defence to score four early goals. Pakistan clawed their way back a little bit towards the half time reducing the deficit.However, poor defence proved too costly for Pakistan as Indian forwards kept on getting gaps in the defence line and scored three more goals in the second half to seal the victory – Sportsencounter
