Heartbreak for India, draw 4-4 with Korea to go out of Asia Cup title race

The young Indian hockey team dished out some impressive and fastpaced hockey in a Super 4s match against South Korea but an outright victory eluded them as a 44 draw pushed them out of the Asia Cup title race here on TuesdayMalaysias 50 win over Japan early in the day meant that an outright win became a prerequisite for India to qualify for the summit clashBoth India Malaysia and Korea finished on five points each in the Super 4 stage but the Birendra Lakraside fell behind on goal differenceNilam Sanjeep Xess 9th minute Dipsan Tirkey 21st Mahesh Sheshe Gowda 22nd and Shakthivel Mareeswaran 37th scored for India while Korea scored through Jang Jonghyun 13th Ji Woo Cheon 18th Kim JungHoo 28th and Jung Manjae 44thKorea will now take on Malaysia in the final on Wednesday while India will play Japan in the thirdfourth place classification matchIt was a midfield slugfest between the two sides as both India and Korea tried to take upper hand in the first quarterIndia secured a penalty corner in the second minute but Nilam Sanjeep Xess effort was saved by the Korean goalkeeper Jaehyeon KimBut in the ninth minute Nilam scored with a low flick to the right bottom corner of the Korean net past Kim from Indias second penalty cornerTwo minutes from the first quarter India conceded a penalty corner and Jang Jonghyun was bang on target to draw level for KoreaKorea made it 21 five minutes later when Ji Woo Cheon chose his spot after being fed by Jungjun Lee following a defensive lapse from Pawan Rajbhar inside his own circleBut India drew level three minutes later when Dipsan Tirkey converted teams third penalty corner Mahesh Sheshe Gowda restored the lead a minute later pushing home Vishnukant Singhs pass from a counterattackKorea secured another penalty corner but this time the Indians defended well to deny JangTwo minutes from halftime Kim JungHoo equalised for Korea through a fine field goal from an acute angle as both the teams went into the breather locked 33India went all out and restored their lead in the 37th minute through an unmarked Shakthivel Mareeswaran who tapped in a cross from Sheshe Gowda from the right flankIn the 42 minute Uttam Singh missed a sitter when he failed to connect to Rajkumars cross standing in front of open goalA yellow card five minute suspension to Yashdeep Siwach three minutes from the third quarter cost India dearly as Korea equalised again when Manjae Jung deflected in a long ball from midfieldJust 27 second from the final hooter Karthi Selvam came close to handing India the winner but Korean goalkeeper Kim Jaehyeon made double save to deny the title holders lastgasp winnerThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever