Picture Credit: Twitter
The Indian men’s hockey team have thrashed their arch-rivals Pakistan 10-2 in the Pool A match at the Asian Games 2023, to secure their fourth straight win in the competition. On September 30, Saturday, at the Gongshu Canal Sports Park Stadium in Hangzhou, there were six different players on the scoresheet for Team India, with the captain Harmanpreet Singh bagging four goals.
For the unversed, the first half of the contest belonged to Team India, who took a 4-0 lead against a very good Pakistan team at the Asiad in Hangzhou. Mandeep Singh opened the scoring in the 7th minute for the Indians, after Abhishek managed to run past the opposition defence to give him a chance to finish off the move.
Harmanpeet Singh opened his account for the day in the 11th minute, converting a penalty stroke, after Pakistan goal-keeper brought down Sukhjeet Singh inside the circle. He scored his second goal, putting the ball in the back of the net off a thunderous drag flick in the 17th minute, before Sumit got his name on the scoresheet with a clinical finish on the stroke of half-time.
The second half of the contest began for India where they left off the first half, with Harmanpreet Singh converting a penalty stroke once again in the 33rd minute, to complete his hat-trick. Then, in the next minute, the Indian captain put another penalty corner in the back of the net to give India the 6-0 lead.
Pakistan finally opened the scoring in the 38th minute, when Muhammad Khan scored for the eight time Asian Games champion. Varun Kumar scored the seventh for India in the 41st minute, but shortly afterwards, Abdul Rana brought the deficit down for Pakistan to 2-7 to end the third quarter.
In the fourth and final quarter, Shamsher Singh, Lalit Kumar Upadhyay, and Varun Kumar got the goals for India to complete a historic 10-2 against Pakistan. With this emphatic performance, the Indian men’s hockey team have also qualified through to the semi-final of the Asian Games 2023.
