10th Hockey Asia Cup 2017: India end Pakistan’s title hopes with 4-0 thrashing

KARACHI: Pakistan’s hopes of remaining in title contention at the 10th Hockey Asia Cup 2017 were shattered when they were beaten 4-0 by arch-rivals India in Dhaka on Saturday.

The greenshirts ended the second round with just one point from their three matches and finished at the bottom in Super 4s.

Pakistan were dominated by their traditional rivals and appeared to be toyed with on some occasions.

In the first quarter, Pakistan were able to make a number of circle entries and also earned three penalty corners. But the Indian defenders prevented the goals.

Gurjant’s top of the circle shot was  well saved by Pakistan goalkeeper Amjad in the second quarter. Both the teams earned one penalty corner each but could not take advantage of it.

The second half belonged to the Indians, who pushed Pakistan on the backfoot with superb movements and launched raids from left, right and centre.

Had it not been for some outstanding work from the custodian Amjad, the scoreline would have been more lop-sided.

After collecting an excellent ball from Lalit Upadhyay, Stabir Singh’s diagonal pass from the right of the circle intended for Gurjant was deflected into the cage by a diving Pakistani defender.

India’s other three goals came in the last quarter.

Amjad’s brilliance had denied India a goal on their five penalty corners. But he was finally beaten on a penalty corner in the 51st minute when a superb flick by Harmanpreet decieved the Pakistani goalkeeper.

In the very next minute, the scoreline was 3-0. The first attempt, resulting from a fluent passing attack, was palmed down well by Amjad but Lalit Upadhyay put it in off the rebound.

India scored their fourth goal three minutes before the full-time when a lightening move was given the finishing touch by Gurjant Singh, whose top of the circle shot sounded the board.