Korea stayed on course to qualify for the Super round by finishing second in their Group, when they beat Hong Kong 12-3, to hand them their second consecutive defeat in the U18 Women Softball Asia Cup 2023 at the Pingtan Softball Stadium, China this morning.
Korea who had lost their opening game against host China 0-10, play Philippines in their final Group match tomorrow.
“I am not happy with the overall performance of my team today against Hong Kong, but glad that we won nevertheless,” said Korean head coach Jang Jeho.
“With this win, we are still on course for our target to finish third and book the World Cup ticket.
“But we will have to give a much more improved performance against Philippines to finish second in our Group.”
Philippines who has one win from yesterday against Hong Kong, will play China this evening and it is highly unlikely for them to beat the host, thus leaving the battle for the second spot between them and Korea.
Jang said that his team had six days training for this tournament, but is confident that they are good for a third placing slot in the tournament.
Philippines too are targeting for the third place slot.
In an earlier game in the morning, India failed to arrive in Pingtan for the tournament and and are only expected to arrive tonight.
Both Japan and Singapore and have earned a forfeited game with 7-0 win over India because of their absence till today because of delay in acquiring their visas.
They are expected to arrive tonight and have a final Group B game against Chinese Taipei and while the game may be played, but the latter will get a 7-0 win for a forfeited game, to be fair to the other two teams in the Group.
India can also play in the two placement matches after that.
It is indeed surprising that India had failed to make their travel arrangements earlier, as they knew well ahead of the competition dates and confirmed their participation as well.
This is not the first time that India has come late for a tournament or had issues with their travel arrangements.
TODAY’S RESULTS
India 0 v Singapore 7 (match forfeited as India has not arrived)
Hong Kong 3 Korea 12
Japan Chinese Taipei
China Philippines
TUESDAY’S RESULTS:
Philippines 7 Hong Kong 0
India 0 v Japan 7 (match forfeited as India failed to show-up)
Singapore 2 Chinese Taipei 15
China 10 Korea 0
TOMORROW’S FIXTURES
8.30am India v Chinese Taipei
10.30am Japan v Singapore
3.30pm Korea v Philippines
5.30pm China v Hong Kong