Scrappy India beat South Africa 4-0

NEW DELHI: The scoreline wasflattering, the performance was not.Playing an all-out attacking game, India blanked an out-of-sorts South Africa 4-0 in the first hockey Test at the National Stadium on Monday. India were unfortunate not to havescored a few more and also lucky not to have conceded any. If the scorelinesuggests a one-sided affair, it was more due to the rusty display by the SouthAfricans.South Africa, who had given a tough time to India duringthe Champions Challenge tournament two months back at home, came here with verylittle practice which was evident from the way they played.India sealed the contest the in the first half itself with three field goals through Shivendra Singh (18th mt), Birendra Lakra (24th) and captain Sardar Singh (28th). Debutant SK Uthappa rounded off the tally with another field goal in the 53rd minute.The hosts started on a positive note creating severalopportunities in the first 15 minutes of the match. In fact, some of the movesshould have ended in goals. They continued to make more inroads into the rivaldefence, but missed out on inflating the scoreline due to poor finishing. In thesecond half, their performance dipped as they made more and more mistakes. "Itwas a match where both the teams made silly mistakes," coach Michael Nobbsadmitted after the match.Despite the ordinary show, India can takeheart from the way SV Sunil and Tushar Khandker performed in tandem, the form ofSardar Singh, the performance of some young players including debutant Uthappaand defender Harbir Singh and goalie PR Sreejesh. "Sunil is a class act, but hehas to be more thorough," said the coach suggesting that there was scope ofimprovement.