India ends on a winning note in Asian Champions Trophy

Akashdeep Singh of India

On Sunday, 10th November, 2013, the men’s Hockey Asian Champions Trophy came to a close. The Indian men’s hockey team were on the field against Oman in the match played for deciding the 5th and 6th positions. India defeated Oman by a monumental difference of 5 goals, with a score of 6-1 on the board.

The Indian team started attacking as the whistle blew and looked in great touch in the first half. The first goal of the match came from Kothajit Singh in the 6th minute of the game. He converted a penalty corner into a goal to mark the beginning of Indian dominance. Continuing in high spirits, the next to score was Gurjinder Singh. He converted another penalty corner into a goal. One of the best goals in the match was still to be witnessed. The moment soon came in the 24th minute when Akashdeep guided the ball clinically and scored a delicate goal to increase the lead to 3-0 in favour of India.

India led by 3-0 in the first half. Akashdeep continued with his agile moves and scored another goal in the 40th minute of the game. Oman was burdened with a massive deficit of 4-0 by this time. They managed to score their only goal in the 58th minute by beating the Indian defence. Malak Singh soon joined the list of goal scorers in the 66th minute and further increased the margin of win. The final goal of the game was the triplet for Akashdeep. He scored his third goal of the match in the last minutes to guide India to a thorough victory against Oman.

Later in the day, the finals went in favour of Pakistan as they defeated hosts Japan by 3-1. Japan was leading with a 1-0 score on the scoreboard in the first half. Pakistan gained momentum in the second half by scoring three consecutive goals and bagged the gold.

Malaysia managed to win in the bronze medal match against China. They won the encounter by the score of 3-0.