India taste win under new coach

kuala lumpur: the gloom that settled on the indian camp after the sacking of chief coach cedric d''souza was lifted when the indian team took the pitch on saturday evening and trounced lowly cuba 4-0 for their first win of the 10th men''s world cup hockey tournament. it was a "soft" match and a win was expected. the absence of cedric had nothing to do with it.india now move to fifth place in pool b, behind australia, south korea, the only unbeaten teams, malaysia and england. australia and korea both scored facile wins over japan and poland respectively, the aussies slamming in five goals and the koreans one less. later, in another pool b match, backed by a vociferous home crowd, hosts malaysia pulled off a 2-1 triumph over england to tie their rivals on points but remain behind them on the league table due to an inferior goal difference. however, in pool a, pakistan''s hopes of making it to the penultimate round suffered a severe setback. they were victims of a dubious penalty stroke award and went down by the odd goal in three to defending champions holland after an exciting contest. and, earlier, in what was a shock result, spain were held to a stunning 2-2 draw by cellar team south africa. with the win over pakistan, the dutch, hoping for a fourth triumph and a back-to-back one, moved to the top of the pool with 13 points from five matches. germany''s narrow 2-1 win over kiwis took them to second place while spain slid to third, ahead of pakistan by two points with two matches to go for all teams. india started with a flourish and by the quarter hour had run roughshod over the hapless cubans, hammering in three goals. dilip tirkey struck off their first penalty corner in the ninth minute and sabu varkey and deepak thakur pumped in two more within the space of four minutes. but then the malady of old seemed to creep in. they appeared to have forgotten how to score goals. too many chances were again wasted, which if converted would not only have boosted their goal difference but also their sagging morale leading up to the crucial matches against poland and australia after a day''s break on sunday. they need to get good victories if they are to entertain the slim chances of playing from four to eight. and it took them not just the remainder of the first half but a good 17 minutes into the second half as well before they could add another goal. skipper baljit singh dhillon grabbed the sitter offered by cuban goalkeeper who''s stick deflection rolled into his path and all he had to do was tap into an empty goal.