Asian Champions Trophy hockey: India beat Korea 3-1

Hyderabad: The Indian men’s hockey team beat Korea 3-1 to continue their unbeaten run in the ongoing Asian Champions Trophy in Hulunbuir, China, on Thursday. The Indian hockey team’s captain Harmanpreet Singh scored a brace while Araijeet Singh Hundal scored one goal for India. Jihun Yang scored Korea’s lone goal.

This is India’s fourth win on the trot in the ongoing Asian Champions Trophy. The Indian team were assured of a semifinal berth after beating Malaysia 8-1 on Wednesday.

Araijeet Hundal continued from where he left off against Malaysia and scored an early goal – in the eighth minute – to set the tempo. Sukhjeet Singh fed Araijeet and the striker spectacularly finished the job on hand.

Harmanpreet Singh doubled India’s lead the very next minute when he scored from a penalty corner opportunity. It was Raj Kumar Pal – the hat-trick hero of India’s 8-1 win over Malaysia – who earned the penalty corner.

Korea made it 2-1 when Jihun Yang scored from a penalty corner opportunity. Yang’s powerful drag flick found Manpreet Singh and the ball went into the goal after a deflection from the Indian.

Suraj Karkera was good in the goal denying the Korean strikers many times. He thwarted many penalty corner chances to keep India’s lead intact.

The Indian captain made it 3-1 in the 43rd minute when he scored from another penalty corner opportunity, this time his low flick going to the left of the Koran goalkeeper.

The Indians then held on to the two goal lead for the remaining time to settle the match in their favour.

India currently occupy the top spot in the points table with 12 points from four matches. The six-team tournament has India, China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Pakistan playing for the top honours.

The top four teams in the points table advance to the semifinals. The semifinals will be held on September 16 with the final on September 17.

India’s last league match is against Pakistan on September 14.