Asia Cup Hockey: India tutor Bangladesh to win 7-0 but disappoint on penalty corners

India, who are currently on top of Pool A and through to the Super-4 stage with two consecutive wins, will play archrivals Pakistan on Sunday.

Courtesy: PTI

New Delhi: India's goals' tally touched 12 in two matches of the 2017 Hockey Asia Cup as the top-ranked team in the continent schooled hosts Bangladesh in Dhaka on Friday to win 7-0 and go through to the Super-4 stage.

Gurjant Singh (7th minute), Akashdeep Singh (11th), Lalit Upadhyay (14th), Amit Rohidas (21st) and Ramandeep Singh (46th) scored once each in the goal-fest, while Harmanpreet Singh took his tournament tally to four goals with two strikes - off a penalty stroke in the 27th minute and penalty corner in the 50th.

While the scorecard sounds overwhelming, India could have entered double figures but for their poor penalty-corner conversion of 2 out of 13. 

It even prompted a tweet from former India forward Jagbir Singh.

"Come on team@TheHockeyIndia playing well#AsiaCup2017,score some penalty corner variations b'coz in crucial matches these chances will count," he tweeted. 

India's only PC conversion came off a variation played between Harmanpreet the flicker and Ramandeep the pusher. After repeatedly getting blocked by the Bangladeshi defence, the Indian team decided to use a variation that worked.

Instead of a drag-flick, Harmanpreet foxed the rusher by passing the ball back to Ramandeep who slapped the ball in to sound the board. 

Harmanpreet took most of the PCs India earned, but credit to Bangladesh's planning, his flicks were not now allowed to cross the first line of defence - the rusher.

Bangladesh, who lost to Pakistan by an identical 7-0 margin in their first match, are expectedly proving to be the punching bag of the tournament. But that takes nothing away from the effort they have put in, which will go a long way in their learning experience. 

India will play Pakistan in their last Pool A match on Sunday at 5:30 pm IST.