Harmanpreet Singh, the captain of the Indian hockey team, and Varun Kumar both scored twice as the hosts India ran riot over their opponent on the first day of the Asian Champions Trophy 2023, China, on Tuesday at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium.
The campaign was launched in jubilant style by the men in blue with a 7-2 victory that evening.
Varun scored in the game’s 19th and 30th minutes, while Harmanpreet scored in the 5th and 8th minutes. For India, the captain successfully converted two penalty corners apiece, while Sukhjeet Singh, Akashdeep Singh, and Mandeep Singh all recorded goals.
Wenhui E and Jiesheng Gao contributed the sticks that led to China’s consolation goals.
Five minutes into the game, the Men in Blue had already earned a penalty corner, which their captain, Harmanpreet, converted with ease. This was a strong start for the Men in Blue.
India doubled the advantage in a short period of time.
Three minutes later, a second penalty corner resulted in the identical outcome thanks to Harmanpreet.
Early in the match, China’s players found it difficult to get through the Indian defense since most of the action was occurring in their own half.
India was given another penalty corner at the beginning of the first quarter break. The Chinese defense stopped Varun’s first flick, but Sukhjeet scored on the rebound.
India got the second quarter off to a strong start with a 3-0 lead.
India went ahead 4-0 only two minutes into the quarter thanks to an assist from Manpreet Singh to Akshdeep.
However, China broke free a minute later when Varun was unable to stop Wenhui from putting an ariel ball past Indian goalkeeper Krishan Bahadur Pathak.
However, the Chinese goal had no effect since Varun scored from a set piece a minute later.
China didn’t get their first penalty corner until the 25th minute.
While the first one failed, the subsequent corner allowed Gao to successfully shoot it past Pathak.
At the very last second of the half, Varun converted another penalty corner for India, sending the ball into the top-right corner as the visitors went into the break down 6-2.
After the switch of ends, China’s situation remained unchanged.
Amit Rohidas’ wide flick was slanted in by Mandeep Singh for India’s eighth goal from a corner in the 40th minute, despite China’s best efforts to boost the tempo.
While the third quarter was pretty calm, the fourth quarter was even more so since neither team could score despite collecting a couple penalty corners.
On Friday, Japan will face India.