Hulunbuir (China), Sep 14: Skipper Harmanpreet Singh led from the front as he scored twice in a 2-1 win over arch-rivals Pakistan in the Hero Asian Champions Trophy hockey tournament. Harmanpreet’s team, which won the Olympic bronze in Paris last month, finished the league without a loss as this was their fifth straight win at the Moqi Hockey Training Base, Hulunbuir, China.
The win enabled India to keep their record over Pakistan since 2016.
Harmanpreet converted two penalty corners, both after Pakistan took the lead through Ahmad Nadeem (8th minute). Harmanpreet (13th, 19th) converted two penalty corners to hand Pakistan’s first loss in this tournament.
Both India and Pakistan have already qualified for the semi-finals.
Among the last few wins, was India 10-2 win in the Hangzhou Asian Games last year and before that a 4-0 defeat at the Chennai edition of the ACT.
The Indians began in a dominating fashion but Pakistan found their confidence and put India on the backfoot.
Then Pakistan drew the first blood, as Hannan Shahid sprinted down the midfield and split the Indian defence and Nadeem was there to find the target.
India did not fall apart but kept composure and patience and restored parity with their first penalty corner two minutes before the end of the first quarter as Harmanpreet scored with a powerful drag-flick to beat the Pakistan goalkeeper Munneb.
The Indians offense continued in the second quarter and they earned a second penalty corner in the 19th minute. Once again Harmanpreet was bang on target as the Pakistan defence had no answer.
Less than a minute before half time Pakistan had a chance but the flick by Sufyan Khan was turned down.
Into the third quarter, India had another chance with a third penalty corner in the 37th minute, but Pakistan defended it well.
Then it was Pakistan’s turn to attack and get four penalty corners in quick succession but they failed to convert any.
In the last quarter, both sides went all out and India secured three more penalty corners but failed to convert any.
There were some heated exchanges between the players but the situation was brought under control as the on-field umpires and Pakistan captain Butt and other players came together. Pakistan Ashraf Waheed Rana was shown yellow card and he went out for a 10-minute suspension.he
The final scoreline stayed 2-1 for India and once again Harmanpreet was the Hero for India.
Meanwhile, in the first match of the day, Malaysia and Korea played out a 3-3 draw.
Korea scored a late goal to hold Malaysia to a 3-3 draw. After this match, Korea remained at No.3 on the points table while Malaysia continued to stay on No.4.
With weekend crowds arriving to the stadium early for the last day of the league matches, Korea and Malaysia lived up to the billing with both teams fighting it out till the last hooter.
Malaysia’s goals came from Azrai Abu Kamal (28′), Norsyafiq Sumantri (35′) and Faizal Saari (55′) while Yang Jihun (4th and 60th) and Cheoleon Park (42′) scored for Korea.
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