India will play Australia in the semi finals of the Junior Hockey World Cup today after they managed to narrowly edge past Spain 2-1 last night. Spain took the lead after 22 minutes thanks to Marc Serrahima who converted from a penalty corner. India had to wait till the 57th minute as Simranjeet Singh tapped home a rebound from close range. Then India's star player this tournament Harmanpreet Singh came up with a good one as he managed to score from a penalty corner.
India have not been performing to the best of their abilities in their last two games against South Africa and most recently against Spain. India had as many as nine penalty corners but could utilize only two as Harmanpreet Singh scored the winner from the eight penalty corner to give India the win.
Despite India winning the game and having a good share of possession they did not look like the India from the first two games in the first half. They lacked co-ordination and made a lot of mistakes while trapping and releasing the ball. Despite that India's coach Harendra Singh feels that India deserved to win.
"If you can win matches on luck then I feel we would have won in 2005. I compliment my players. Despite trailing they kept calm and composed heads. They did not do hara-kiri which is generally associated with Indian hockey. I don't believe in luck, it is their (players) hard work which is producing results," Firstpost quoted the Indian coach as saying.
Harendra Singh did express his concern with that fact that despite India got nine penalty corners they only untitled two.
"Penalty corner conversion is a concern, but it just not the drag-flicker who is at fault. There are three main elements which come into play during a penalty corner, injector, stopped and drag-flicker who come at the last. The turf is also a little bumpy here. It sometimes can favor you and also act against you. But at the end of the day, we won the match by a dragflick," Harendra said.
Despite India winning their last two matches they were also a bit disappointing. Now that India are playing Australia in the semi finals they will really have to up their game because if they put in a similar performance and continue to make silly mistakes they might have to wait longer for their first Junior Hockey World Cup title since 2001.
Where to watch live
Australia vs India is set to begin at 6:00 PM IST today.
India: TV:Star Sports 4/ Star Sports HD4. Live Streaming:Hotstar
International: Live Streaming:Olympic Channel
