Sloppy India escape with draw against South Korea

Unlike the last couple of years where India dominated hockey in the continent, it isn’t going to be a walk in the park for the hosts this time around. Not with the way they are playing.

- Sandip Sikdar

Porous defence, lack of coordination, indisciplined and wayward counterattacks, India continued their poor run at the Asia Cup, just about managing a 2-2 draw against defending champions South Korea in their first Super 4 match on Wednesday.

What looked like an anomaly when the Harmanpreet Singh-led squad lost seven successive matches in the European leg of the FIH Pro League in June, looks to be nothing less than very poor form against teams who couldn't even qualify for the Paris Olympics, let alone enter the top 10 in the world.

The contest was delayed by 53 minutes due to torrential rain which hit Rajgir after a day of extreme heat, bringing down the temperatures. The downpour, which began with the game about to start, also slowed the field, and despite their best efforts, the volunteers could not remove enough water from the turf.