KUANTAN (MALAYSIA): Rising to the occasion with their traditional hockey play and Harmanpreet Singh’s hat-trick, India spanked Pakistan 6-2 to clinch the eight Junior Men’s Asia Cup at the Wisma Belia Stadium here today.
India started the match on a positive note pressing hard since the opening minute of the first half and was soon awarded with a penalty corner. Harmanpreet Singh converted the penalty corner to take his tally to 12 goals in the tournament and give India an early advantage of 1-0.
India was again awarded with back-to-back penalty corners in the 13th and 14th minute. Harmanpreet scored again to take India 2-0 up within 15 minutes of the game.
Pakistan fought back in the 28th minute with a successful penalty corner from Yaqoob Muhammad. Soon after in the 30th minute Harmanpreet scored from another penalty corner to complete his hat-trick and taking his goal tally to 14 goals in tournament. The first half ended with India leading 3-1.
The second half saw the Indian domination continue with Armaan Qureshi scoring in the 44th minute taking the score to 4-1 in India’s favour.
Manpreet jr. Scored the fifth goal for India followed by another penalty corner goal by Harmanpreet making the score 6-1. Pakistan scored a consolation goal in the 68th minute through Dilber Muhammad. The match ended with India winning the trophy with a score line of 6-2. (AGENCIES)