QUETTA, 28 September 2004 — Teenage short corner specialist Sandeep Singh scored two goals to guide India to a series-leveling 4-1 triumph against Pakistan in the second Test of the GT Challenge hockey series here at the General Musa Stadium yesterday.
Sandeep, a tall, young defender from Haryana who was one of the major reasons why India won the Junior Asia Cup in Karachi this April, stunned the hosts with a couple of strikes within three minutes during the first session to play a pivotal role in India’s first victory over Pakistan this year.
While India were excelling in the short corner department, Pakistan could only score once off their five penalty corners.
Not that Pakistan’s short corner ace Sohail Abbas was at fault. The hosts had problems in pushing and stopping the ball and wasted four of the five short corners because of poor drills. The only short corner that was pushed and stopped properly was converted by substitute short corner striker Ghazanfar Ali.
But that goal came just two minutes from the final whistle and by that time India had racked up a huge 4-0 lead.
The young Indians went into the match as underdogs having lost all seven of the previous encounters against Pakistan since the start of this year. And it seemed that the Pakistanis, who won the first Test 2-1 in Karachi last weekend, would maintain their superiority over India as they came out with a series of attacks early in the first session.
But India forced a short corner against the run of play and Sandeep, who sat out most of the opening Test because of lack of fitness, was right on target to take his side 1-0 ahead in the 14th minute. The goal gave Indian forwards loads of confidence and they were back in the Pakistani danger zone just three minutes later earning another short corner. Once again Sandeep made no mistake as his low push was good enough to beat Pakistani goalkeeper Salman Akber. Pakistan responded to the goal with repeated attacks and were finally rewarded with their first short corner. But an indirect attempt went in vain. They got another short corner a few minutes later but were unable to capitalize on it either.
India, on the other hand, made full use of an unforced error by the Pakistani defense, to make it 3-0 through Ignace Tirkey, who scored off a powerful shot on an assist from Arjun Halappa two minutes from halftime.
Pakistan, returned to the field after the break showing more urgency in searching for goals but only made more mistakes both in the defense and the offense.
Pakistan created a number of chances only to squander them even as India were reduced to ten men twice in the second session after skipper Dilip Tirkey and influential midfielder Viren Rasquinha were show yellow cards for rough play in the 46th and 57th minutes respectively.
India continued to enjoy what was perhaps one of their best days on the hockey field this year when rookie forward Tushar Khandekar scored a soft goal in the 60th minute.
Ghazanfar scored what was a consolation goal in the 68th minute with a high flick off Pakistan’s fifth short corner. The teams now fly to Peshawar for the third Test of the eight-match home-and-away series to be played on Sept. 29.
