India stormed into the Asia Cup field hockey tournament semi-finals with a comfortable 6-0 victory over Bangladesh here on Tuesday. The defending champions overcame a slow start to assert their supremacy over Bangladesh, scoring five goals in a second-half blitz to post their fourth successive win in the six-team Group B.
The hosts lead the table with 12 points from four matches, followed by 2006 Doha Asian Games champions South Korea (6/3), China (6/3), Bangladesh (6/4), Sri Lanka (0/3) and Thailand (0/3).
Malaysia kept their hopes alive of making it to the last-four with a 2-0 victory over fighting Japan. They now lead the five-team Group A with nine points from three matches, followed by Pakistan (6/3) and Japan (6/3).
Three-time champions Pakistan now need to beat Malaysia in their last match on Wednesday to stay in the contention. Japan will take on winless Singapore in their last game. India, who posted a 3-2 over a tough South Korean side on Monday, took more than half-an-hour to breach the Bangladeshi defence, with Ramchandra Raghunath opening the account off a Shivender Singh cross from the right.
"We were not mentally into the game in the first half after a tough game against South Korea yesterday, but the boys pulled their socks up in the second session," said Indian coach Joaquim Carvalho. Bangladesh, who had done well in the first half to restrict the hosts to just one goal, failed to cope with pressure in the second session and suffered their second defeat in four matches.
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