India defeat Pakistan 3-1 in Asia Cup hockey

India continued their brilliant form in the Asia Cup Hockey 2017 tournament as the Men In Blue defeated arch-rivals Pakistan 3-1 in their Pool A match at the Maulana Bhashani National Hockey Stadium in Dhaka on Sunday. Chinglensana Singh (17th minute), Ramandeep Singh (44th minute) and Harmanpreet Singh (45th) scored for India. By virtue of this win, India finished on top of Pool A with nine points from three games while Pakistan secured the second spot with four points.

Ali Shan scored Pakistan’s lone goal of the match.

Both India and Pakistan have managed to secure their place in the round-robin Super 4 stage of the tournament.

Even though Japan defeated hosts Bangladesh 3-1 earlier in the day, the victory was not for them to enter the Super 4 stage as they lost out to Pakistan on goal difference.
India broke through a slow Pakistan midfield, stretching the field wide. At times, it almost seemed that India had more players on the turf, the speed on the counters making them looking like locusts in flight but eating away at the Pakistan goal wasn’t happening. Akashdeep Singh, Lalit Upadhyay, Ramandeep Singh, SV Sunil, powered their way through but the last touch, the killer strike, the tap, the strongly-struck final shot was missing.

India will now move into the second round of Super 4s where the top teams from both the pool will play in round-robin format before the knockouts.