Ipoh: India have made it to the finals of Asia Cup where they will take on South Korea after defeating Malaysia by 2-0 on Friday. Apart, India have also qualified for the 2014 Hockey World Cup, which was their prime target before the commencement of this Asia Cup.
If India manage to win its match against Korea, then it would be for the third time that India will be lifting the Asia Cup, as India had earlier won it in 2003 and 2007.
Meanwhile, the consolation for the Malaysians is the fact that they have also qualified for the 2014 FIH World Cup.
India took an early lead in the sixth minute with a penalty corner converted by V R Raghunath.
In the second half, Malaysia got two back-to-back penalty corners but Indian goalkeeper P R Sreejesh made good saves to keep India ahead. India doubled its lead in the 60th minute when Ramandeep Singh split open the Malaysian defence with a brilliant through ball that found Mandeep, who made no mistake with scoring the winning goal.
Forward Mandeep Singh won the Man of the Match award.
Earlier, Pakistan were knocked out by South Korea and in the process also failed to qualify for the 2014 World Cup. It is for the first time in the past 42 years (since the start of World Cup) that Pakistan will be missing out from the World Cup.