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Hostbusters

Akashdeep Singh's stunner sees an otherwise-uninspiring India overcome South Korea to set up hockey final with Pakistan

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India’s SV Sunil and Akashdeep Singh celebrate their semifinal win over South Korea in Incheon on Tuesday
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After what transpired in the boxing arena, Indian fans were very sceptical when the Men in Blue took on hosts South Korea in the semifinal at the Seonhak Hockey Stadium on Tuesday.

Playing a higher-ranked team in their own backyard is always a tough proposition. But the Sardar Singh-led side somehow managed to overcome their opponents by a solitary goal to set up mouth-watering title clash with arch-rivals Pakistan, whom they had lost to four days ago in a pool game. Pakistan later defeated Malaysia 6-5 on penalties.

India won the game, but their display was anything but convincing. The first two quarters saw both teams adopt a wait-and-watch policy. Even though India got a clear chance to go up in the fourth minute, Dharamvir Singh missed an empty goal after failing to trap Sardar's parallel pass. India had to wait till the 44th minute when Akashdeep Singh finally broke the deadlock, scoring a field goal in spectacular fashion.

Without turning, he flicked the ball through the legs of Korean goalkeeper Myungho Lee, who just didn't anticipate this shot.

In the fourth and final quarter, the hosts threw everything at the Indians. However, India managed to maintain ball possession, especially in the midfield, and never allowed the Koreans to penetrate.

The last five minutes turned out to be intense for India, who were forced to fall back and defend. They must have felt the pressure when South Korea earned their only penalty corner of the match just two minutes from the final hooter. However, the Indian defence denied the hosts.

Sardar was again India's best player. The rest just failed to match his performance. The South Koreans lacked imagination and creativity while the Indian frontline once again looked stubborn to hold on to the ball much longer than required.

India have reached the final of the Asian Games for the first time since 2002, when they ended up with the silver medal.

"An important part of the preparation is the recovery we've got to make," chief coach terry Walsh said of Thursday's final. "I don't think that we have to work terribly hard on the mental side… I think that we just need to keep the players in sight of what they need to do." He said the players have worked hard and trained specifically on certain aspects of their game. They have had long video analysis sessions.

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