India mauled Japan 35-1 after beating Malaysia 7-5 to enter the semifinals of the men’s Asian Hockey 5s World Cup Qualifiers at Salalah, Oman on Thursday. With two wins on the day, India finished second in the Elite pool table with 12 points, and earned a direct qualification for the semifinals. They play in the second semifinal of the tournament on Saturday. In their first match of the day, India won a closely-contested match against Malaysia with Gurjot Singh (7th, 11th, 17th, 29th, 30th) scoring five goals. Maninder Singh (12th) and Mohammed Raheel (21st) were other Indian scorers.
Malaysia scored through Arif Ishak (6th), Ismail Abu (7th), Muhamad Din (8th), Kamarulzaman Kamaruddin (26th) and Syarman Mat (30th).
Against Japan in the second match, it was mayhem with the Indians raining goals at will. Maninder (1st, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 9th, 15th, 20th, 24th, 25th, 29th) scored a whopping 10 goals while Mohammed Raheel (3rd, 4th, 11th, 12th, 17th, 26th, 26th) struck seven times.
Pawan Rajbhar (2nd, 6th, 10th, 13th, 23rd) and Gurjot Singh (12th, 20th, 21st, 27th, 30th) scored five goals each, while Sukhvinder (4th, 8th, 16th, 22nd) struck five. Captain Mandeep Mor (18th, 23rd, 29th) was on target while Jugraj Singh (15th) got one.
For Japan, Masataka Kobori (29th) scored their lone goal.
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