South Korea beat fellow defending champions India 3-2 in a stunning comeback from two goals down in one of the opening matches of the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup on Thursday. Both teams are defending the title after being declared joint champions when heavy rain caused play to be abandoned last year, and they showed their mettle in an exhilarating match of two very different halves.
India had the upper hand in the first half with early goals coming from Diwakar Ram and Danish Mujtaba. Ram struck from a penalty corner in the 20th minute while Majtaba scored with a reverse hit seven minutes later. The Koreans, ranked sixth in the world, did not give up and pulled one back in the 31st minute through Cho Suk-Hoon from their third penalty corner.
Indian coach Harinder Singh said his team lost the plot in the second half after two of their players, Mahdik Dhananjay and Shivendra Singh, were injured. "The Koreans are always fast with their game and in the second half applied a lot of pressure on us. The players failed to say focused and we paid the price by letting them get the goals," he said. India will play Great Britain on Friday.
Meanwhile, Asian Games champions Pakistan got off to a winning start when they beat New Zealand 4-2, breaking a run of five defeats at the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup since 2008. In the last game of the day, Great Britain got off to a winning start when they defeated hosts Malaysia 3-1. They will meet India on Friday while hosts Malaysia have a date with world number one Australia.
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