By T.S.V. Hari, IANS
Chennai : China and Japan scored facile wins in the BSNL Asia Cup Men’s Hockey Tournament here Monday, completely outclassing their opponents Thailand and Hong Kong respectively.
The Thais couldn’t open their account and had 13 goals scored against them by China, emerging as a big team in Asia. Hong Kong managed a solitary consolation goal netted by penalty corner specialist Ali Arif against the seven scored by Japan.
The Hong Kong players could do nothing against Japanese captain Yamabori Takahiko, who was simply unstoppable, personally scoring six out of the seven goals for his team.
The other name in the credits from the Japanese side was Yoshida Kazuo who converted a penalty corner.
Japan went ahead in the very second minute, scoring off a pass from the left flank cleverly converted by Takahiko.
From then on, there was no looking back – despite a 53rd minute yellow card shown to Takahiko a few seconds before Hong Kong reduced the margin.
For China, Hu Hui Ren blasted five, including a brace.
The lone blemish for China was a green card shown to Na Yu Bo in the 53rd minute by Pakistani umpire Kamran S. Chaudhary.