Harpal Singh Bedi / Bhubaneswar
Riding on Lalit Upadhyay’s brace, India fired goals in last quarter to thump Canada 5-1 and stormed into the quarter finals from pool C of the 14th Hockey World Cup at Kalinga stadium, in Bhubaneswar on Saturday.
Backed by 15,000 strong partisan crowd the home side shed its 40 minutes of lethargic showing and put up a awesome display of firepower in the last 14 minutes decimate Canadian challenge to become the third team after Argentina and Australia to move into last eight directly.
Indian topped the pool with 7 points (two wins and a draw) scoring 12 goals while conceding three.
For India who led 1-0 at half time the goal scorers were Lalit Upadhyay (47th,57th) Harmanpreet Singh(12th) Chinglensana Kanguan (46th) ,Amit Rohidas (51st) While for Canada Floris Van Son (39th) reduced the margin
India who needed to win by two goal margin after Belgium had beaten South Africa 5-1, started with a flourish forcing two penalty corners, second of which was converted in the 12th minute by Harmanpreet Singh (1-0) as packed stadium came alive.
Couple of minutes later the hosts forced another penalty corner, their third, but it went a begging as the variation tried by Harmanpreet did not work out as per plan
The Indians kept the pressure till the end of the opening quarter.
However to the surprise of all, the Indian suddenly conceded the advantage and domination to the Canadians in the second quarter
Canadian striker Keegan Pereira moved up from the right wing without any challenge and set up Matthew Sarmento fumbled in the circle and failed to beat the defenders.
Indian goal then survived as Oliver Scholfield made a solo move which created a panic in the defence but Surender Kumar was quick to fall back and foiled the attack. .
However the Canadians realising that Indian defence had become tentative put up more pressure and that paid off as they drew equaliser in the 39th minute when they launched a counter from the left and unmarked Floris Von Son intercepted the ball in the circle and beat past on rushing Sreejesh (1-1).
The Indian defence suddenly looked shaky as Von Son again threatened to score but Sreejesh made a fine save.
Indian goal came under assault but survived anxious moments as panic gripped the stadium with Indians struggling to hold on their ramaging rivals.
But as the last quarter began, the picture and situation changed dramatically as the hosts regrouped them selves and launched counter attacks and the stadium erupted.
In a breath taking exhibition of fiery aggression, Indians pummelled Canadian citadel with a four goal blitz with Lalit Upadhyay scoring two goals, Chinglensana Singh and Amit Rohidas pumping in one each.
The crowd went into raptures when local boy Amit converted a penalty corners.The hosts muffed few chances in the closing stages of the game