Sultan Azlan Shah 2019: India vs Korea match ends in a thrilling draw
India drew with Korea 1-1 in the 28th Sultan Azlan Shah tournament played at Ipoh on Sunday.
India made valiant efforts in the initial stages and earned a penalty corner but could not convert that into a goal. For the rest of the first quarter, both the teams held themselves well and neither scored nor allowed the opponents to score to end the first quarter at 0-0.
India continued their attack and earned their 2nd penalty corner in the 20th minute of the game but were not able to convert the opportunity into a goal. In the 28th minute, Mandeep Singh scored a brilliant field goal to give India a 1-0 lead. At the end of the first half, India still led 1-0.
Korea got off to a perfect start in the 3rd quarter, earning 2 successive penalty corners, but unfortunately, both went to waste. Indian defense was solid and foiled attacks from the opponents. Korea earned their 3rd penalty corner which was also not capitalized upon. At the end of the third quarter, India still led 1-0.
In the fourth quarter, rain threatened right from the start and interrupted the match in the 52nd minute. After the rain break, Korea earned 2 successive penalty corners and the Indian defense again foiled their efforts. Korea continued their aggressive play and earned their 6th penalty corner in the last minute that was defended successfully
Korea again earned another penalty corner in the dying seconds that was converted into a goal by Jang Jonghyun to level the scores.
The match ended in a thrilling 1-1 draw. India slipped to third place as Korea have a better goal difference and Malaysia defeated Japan by 4-3 in the other match of the day, and lead the table.
India will take on Malaysia in their 3rd league match on 26th March.