DOHA: The hopes of a podium finish for the Indian women's hockey team seems to be receding.

Confronted by a strong combination like Japan, which is also the pool leader and a favourite for the gold, India caved in within the first 10 minutes to concede two goals from which it failed to recover, notwithstanding a gallant second-half show.

Why the defence failed to mark the two prominent strikers, Komori and Chiba, is difficult to fathom. Actually, both the goals surfaced against the run of play, which indicated the Indian attack, led well by Jyothi Kullu, was gaining the upper hand.

Quick goals

The two quick goals completely transformed the game. Perforce, India had to be on the defensive for a major part of the first half. A free hit by Saeke Morimoto caught the defence in a vortex of confusion. The goalkeeper Deepika had no clue how to thwart a Komori backhander. Even before the defence could recover from the shock came the next, with Chiba finding the net from a wing pass by Yukari.

Revival

But it should be said to the credit of the Indians that they strove really hard to make good the leeway in the second half. The fluent runs by Mamta Kharab and Surinder Kaur did escalate pressure on the rival defence.

Midfielder Asuntha Lakra also caught the attention by her neat distribution. But the frontline rarely worked in tandem to really go for the kill.

Almost throughout the second half, the Indians were dominant in the rival area and forced as many as five penalty corners. Sadly, they messed up everything.

With this second defeat in five matches, India's tally stands at nine, while Japan's has gone up to 13 points. India has a match remaining with South Korea on December 11.

Identifying the two qualifiers from Pool A of the men's competition became a guessing game when Pakistan and Japan won their matches against Chinese Taipei and Hong Kong respectively without much ado. Both have seven points, and come to grips on Sunday in a key encounter.

The third contender, Malaysia (now with five points) is now in a must-win situation against Chinese Taipei. If there is a three-way tie, Pakistan and Japan are better placed on account of their sizable goal difference and aggregate. Pakistan's goal difference is 18 against Japan's 15 and plus one of Malaysia.

The results: Men: Pool A: Japan 12 (Hiroki Sakamoto, Takahiko Yamabori 6, Toshikai Fakuda 4, Kazuhiro Tsubouchi) bt Hong Kong 1 (Akbar Ali); Pakistan 9 (Imran Muhammad 3, Adnan Maqsood 2, Shakeel Abbasi 2, Zubair Muhammad, Tariq Aziz) bt Chinese Taipei 0.

Women: China 7 (Ma Yibo 3, Li Hong Xia, Ye Ren 2, Chen Quiqi) bt Chinese Taipei 0. Japan 2 (Tomino Komori, Kaori Chiba) bt India 0; Korea 4 (Kim Me Seon, Park Mi Hyun, Kang Na Yang, Choi Eun Young) bt Malaysia 0.

Sunday's matches: Men: Pool B: Bangladesh v Oman (12-30 p.m.); India v Korea (2-30 p.m.); Pool A: Malaysia v Chinese Taipei (5-30 p.m.); Pakistan v Japan (7-30 p.m.).

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