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Asian Champions Trophy 2018: India hammer Japan 9-0, register third win on the trot

Indian Hockey Team continued its winning streak as the Men In Blue defeated Japan by 9-0 here on Sunday (October 21) to win their third game on the trot at the Asian Champions Trophy 2018.

Asian Champions Trophy 2018: India hammer Japan 9-0, register third win on the trot

Muscat, Oct 22: Indian Hockey Team continued its winning streak as the Men In Blue defeated Japan by 9-0 here on Sunday (October 21) to win their third game on the trot at the Asian Champions Trophy 2018.

India started the proceedings of scoring from the first quarter itself and ensured they score in all four of them. The Japanese hardly posed any threat to the Indian defence all along the game as the Indian forwards and mid-fielders kept the ball in the second half for most of the time.

India beat Pakistan 3-1India beat Pakistan 3-1

As a result, Indian custodian PR Sreejesh - who was once again at his attentive best below the bars - had hardly much work to do.

Lalit Upadhyay (4'& 45'), Harmanpreet Singh (17'&21') and Mandeep Singh (49' & 57') scored a brace each while Gurjant (8'), Akashdeep (35'), and Kothajit (42') had one goal each to their names. The Indians were dominant from the start of the game and all the Japanese were trying to do was catching up to their counterparts.

India would still have to work on their Penalty Corner conversions, though, as they could only convert two goals from 5 opportunities they got. However, coach Harendra Singh's boys were brilliant on the turf as far as getting field goals was concerned.

The boys coordinated extremely well and managed to breach the overcrowded Japanese circle on a couple of occasions, much to the annoyance of the Japanese defenders and goalkeeper.

At half-time itself, India had taken a considerable 4-0 lead over their opponents and continued to make inroads in the opposition's D in the remaining 30 minutes to hit five more goals and stamp their authority.

Earlier on Saturday (October 21), India scored a facile 3-1 win over Pakistan in the tournament to register their second consecutive win in the tournament after beating Oman 11-0 in the opening game.

The match against Pakistan started on a jarring note for India as Irfan Jr put Pakistan ahead in the first minute itself through a penalty. Indian goalkeeper Sreejesh stopped the drag flick but Irfan was at the right position to nudge the ball into the box.

The first quarter ended with Pakistan holding onto the lead and if they had little more sense of target would have put them even farther ahead of India. But India got the equaliser a bit against the tide of the play and it required a piece of magic by Manpreet Singh. Manpreet dodged three Pakistan defenders and beat the custodian with a neat push to make it 1-1.

Thereafter India took charge of the match with relentless sorties. Pakistan attack never looked in comfort blocking the waves of Indian attack but they failed to capitalise as both the teams went for half-time tied on 1-1.

Story first published: Monday, October 22, 2018, 1:29 [IST]
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