After first three games of the Hero Asian Men’s Champions Trophy Hockey Tournament ended in draws, India broke the barrier to record an emphatic 9-0 win over the hosts Bangladesh on Wednesday. With this win, India moved to the top of the table with four points with Japan and Korea sharing the second spot with two points each.
Earlier, Korea and Japan played a 3-3 draw. Japan had in its opening game held Pakistan to a goalless draw while Korea and India had split points on the opening day with a 2-2 draw.
Young Dilpreet Singh, who scored the first, second and sixth goal for India, notched up the first hat trick of the tournament. Jarmanjeet Singh, who was tried as a shadow penalty corner striker, produced good results with fourth and fifth goals for his team.
Bangladesh put up a splendid fight in the first half, defending stoutly almost all the penalty corners before Dilpreet Singh scored in the 12th and 22nd minutes to put India ahead. It was just before the end of the first half that Lalit Kumar succeeded in deflecting home a flick from Harmanpreet Singh for the third goal.
India consolidated the lead with an indirect penalty corner conversion in the opening minute of the second half. Jarmanjeet scored his second successive goal in the 43rd minute. Subsequent goals by Dilpreet Singh and Akashdeep Singh. In the fourth and final quarter, India succeeded in making full use of penalty corners with Mandeep Mor and Harmanpreet Singh being the scorers.
India now plays Pakistan in its third game.
Pakistan has one point from its goalless draw against Japan.