India thrash Trinidad and Tobago 10-1 to keep hopes alive

Melbourne, Mar 20 (UNI) Drag flicker Sandeep Singh slammed four goals, including a hat trick, and striker Deepak Thakur struck thrice in a row as India pumped out all their pent up frustrations on hapless Trinidad and Tabago, crushing them 10-1 to stay alive in the men's hockey competition of the Commonwealth Games here today.

For the winners, who led 4-1 at half time, other scorers were, Kanwalpreet Singh, Rajpal Singh and Tushar Khandekar (one each).

For the losers, Chain Dwain Quan scored the lone goal.

It was a mismatch but the Indians had to win by a big margin to stay afloat in the league and they did it in style. The winners could have increased their goal tally but for the missed chances. They earned as many as 12 penalty corners but could convert only three and in all they had 25 shots at the goal of which only 10 went in.

India needs to win tomorrow by another big margin against South Africa, who surprised Pakistan by holding them to a 1-1 draw late last night.

The Caribbean islanders have become the whipping boys in this tournament having conceded 26 goals in three matches.

The match assumed importance for India after they goofed up their chances against Malaysia and caved in against Pakistan. The Caribbeans became a life line for the Indians and if the Indians capitalise on their form against South Africa, they can still hope to be in the knock out.

It was an Indian show all the way, but their rivals still surprised by scoring a goal against the run of play and this goal may make all the difference if it comes to averages to decide the second team from this pool.

The Indians faced no opposition as they attacked at will but against such a trivial opposition they missed quite a few chances and muffing up nine of the 12 penalty corners is a cause for concern.

True that against an unorganised opposition like the Trinidad and Tobago, it is often difficult to score but their inability to make use of the penalty corners is worrisome.

The Indians started attacking in the right earnest with Rajpal Singh giving them the lead in the fourth minute, Deepak Thakur than scored two goals in space of six minutes to take the tally to 3-0.

In between Indians muffed three penalty corners.

To their horror, India conceded a goal in the 23rd minute when Quan sent the ball home stunning the defenders and the goalkeeper (1-3) but within seven minutes Deepak Thakur completed his hat trick, scoring the team's fourth goal.

The second session saw India piling up more pressure, which fetched them six more goals. Sandeep Singh took the tally to 5-1 when he converted a penalty corner in the 38th minute and three minutes later the tally went up to 6-1 with Kanwalpreet converting a stroke.

Tushar Khandekar chipped in with a goal in the 45th minute (7-1) and then it was the turn of Sandeep to score three more goals to complete the rout.

His goals came in the 57th, 64th (penalty corners) and 70th minutes.

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