Fulton impressed with India’s show against Pak
“We did play a good-structured game. We did miss a few chances in the fourth quarter, but we did well overall,” Fulton said during the post-match press conference.
India head coach Craig Fulton
CHENNAI: India head coach Craig Fulton hailed his side’s “structured” and “consistent” game in the 4-0 thrashing of arch-rival Pakistan in the Asian Champions Trophy hockey match here and he’s looking for his players to continue in the same vein in the semifinals against Japan.
India’s comprehensive 4-0 win in its last round-robin league match on Wednesday knocked Pakistan out of the tournament. Unbeaten India topped the league table with four wins and a draw and play Japan in the semifinals on Friday.
“We did play a good-structured game. We did miss a few chances in the fourth quarter, but we did well overall,” Fulton said during the post-match press conference.
“We had some good consistency in each quarter, which we did the same during the Japan game (on August 4 which ended in 1-1 draw).”
Japan sneaked into the semifinals ahead of Pakistan on better goal difference, though the two sides collected five points each. Japan had minus two goal difference as against minus five of Pakistan. In fact, third-placed Korea also secured five points but it has a goal difference of minus one.
“We also had more penetration into the circle in each quarter than Japan. So, it will be about maintaining consistency and not doing it just one way,” Fulton said about the semifinal against Japan.
Pakistan was disallowed a goal after video referral early in the first quarter on the ground that the ball had hit a player’s body before he scored. Pakistan coach Muhammad Saqlain later complained that India’s first penalty corner from which the host took 1-0 lead off captain Harmanpreet Singh’s drag-flick was wrongly awarded.
“We conceded through India’s first penalty corner, but it came off the hand. The second umpire did inform that it wasn’t a PC, but the other umpire did not hear it,” Saqlain said.
“We lost the referral in the process. Such mistakes cannot happen at this level, especially when we are playing against the top sides in the world. So, the standard of umpiring needs improvement, which has been inconsistent in the event throughout,” he added.
Asked about the umpiring decisions in the match, Fulton played with a straight bat.
“That’s what video referrals are for. It (Pakistan’s disallowed goal) was scored off the body. But there are some goals that umpires can’t disallow.
“At the end of the day, they (Pakistan) played well. They had chances, but we defended well and got the goals counted at the right time.” Jugraj Singh scored India’s third goal in the third quarter off a penalty corner. Asked about the decision-making process regarding Jugraj being asked to take the penalty corner, Fulton said it was planned and “it all happened behind the scenes”.
