FIH World Series 2019: Japan beat Poland 6-2 in cross-over match, to face India in the semifinals

Bhubaneswar: Favourites India will face Japan in the semi-finals of the FIH Series Finals hockey tournament after the Asian Games champion thrashed Poland 6-2 in a cross-over match on Wednesday. [caption id=“attachment_6802811” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Japan trailed Poland 1-0 after just seven minutes before staging a comeback. (FIH)[/caption] World No. 18 Japan completely dominated the match and scored through Shota Yamada (20th minute), Hirotaka Zendana (23rd), Kenta Tanaka (34th), Koji Yamasaki (36th, 60th) and Kenji Kitazato (47th) to emerge winners. Mikolaj Gumny (7th) and Mateusz Hulboj (26th) were the goal scorers for Poland. In the other cross-over match of the day, world No. 16 South Africa edged past Russia 2-1 to qualify for the semi-finals. While South Africa scored via Nqobile Ntuli (40th) and Ryan Julius (53rd) to came out triumphant, Georgii Arusiia (47th) was the goal scorer for Russia. While India will square off against Japan in the semifinals on Friday, South Africa will take on USA in the last-four round. Russia and Poland will play against each other for the fifth-sixth place classification game on Friday morning .