India romp past Indonesia with record margin
JAKARTA: Defending champions India launched their Asian Games men’s hockey campaign with a record-equalling 17-0 win against hosts Indonesia in a Pool A league match, at the GBK Hockey Field here on Monday.
The win was also India’s biggest in Asian Games history as over 70 goals were scored in six matches on the day.
As many as three Indians — Mandeep Singh, Dilpreet Singh and Simranjeet Singh — scored a hat-trick each with the winners in full control of the proceedings right from the start. Rupinder Pal Singh scored two and Akashdeep Singh, Harmanpreet Singh, Lalit Upadhyay, SB Sunil, Vivek Sagar Prasad and Amit Rohidas scored one goal each to complete the tally. At the half-way stage, India were leading 9-0.
By the end of the first quarter, India were 5-0 up and the second quarter produced four goals more. The trend continued even after a change of ends and India went on to score eight goals in the remaining two quarters.
India forced eight penalty-corners and converted six off them. As expected, hosts looked clueless in the 60-minute duel as they were almost begging for the ball. In the second half, they managed to raid the Indian citadel thrice, but to no avail. India were also guilty of missing some easy chances, else the margin could have been bigger. “This was the kind of start we were looking for. We were not chasing any record of winning by maximum goals but a 17-0 margin instills confidence,” coach Harendra Singh said.
In other matches, Malaysia trounced Kazakhstan 16-2, Korea brushed aside Hong Kong 11-0, Japan outplayed Sri Lanka 11-0, Pakistan routed Thailand 10-0 and Bangladesh beat Oman 2-1.