Defending champions India won the bronze medal in The Asian Champions Trophy men’s hockey tournament after they beat their arch-rivals Pakistan 4-3 in a thrilling encounter, on December 22 (Wednesday) played in Dhaka.
Indian team started the game on a terrific note after they were awarded a hat-trick of penalty corners within a minute into the game and their persistence eventually paid off as Harmanpreet Singh made no mistake to convert the fourth penalty corner in the fifth minute of the game. The Punjab-born player scored the first goal of the match for India and took his tally to eight goals in the Asian Champions Trophy.
Quick equaliser
But six minutes later Pakistan found the much-coveted eqaliser after Arfraz scored a brilliant goal. Defensive lapse from India in the circle helped the men in Green Shirts to score the equaliser.
In the 14th minute of the game Pakistan earned their first penalty corner of the game. But their poor run with the penalty corners continued as they could not score off a single penalty corner in this tournament.
It was even-stevens after the first 15 minutes in the bronze-medal match.
Goalless second quarter
Second quarter turned out to be simply barren as no team could manage to score a goal. India and Pakistan lost a referral each in the dying seconds of the second quarter.
Pakistan claimed the lead in the 33rd minute of the match. Young Abdul Rana scored on the rebound after India keeper made a save from the penalty corner. Pakistan had another chance, minutes later to secure a two-goal cushion but their shot hit the post.
With just seconds left on the clock for third quarter to end, Sumit converts from close quarter after a terrific work from Gursahibjit down the left flank.
Change in Indian tactics paid off as Varun Kumar's shot on goal gave the Indian team a much needed lead in the 53rd minute. India managed to increase their lead in the four minutes later after Akashdeep Singh scored a superb field goal. But it did not take too long for Pakistan team to snatch one more goal after Nadeem pulled one back to make the score 4-3.
