Harmanpreet’s brace hands India 3-1 win over Korea in ACT hockey

Hulunbuir: Skipper Harmanpreet Singh scored a brace as defending champions India beat Korea 3-1 to register their fourth consecutive win at the Hero Asian Champions Trophy here on Thursday.

Paris Olympics bronze medallist India had defeated China 3-0, Japan 5-0 before thrashing last year’s runner-up Malaysia 8-1. Already assured of a semifinal berth, India will play arch-rivals Pakistan on Saturday in their last league match in the six-team competition.

The top four teams from the league stages will qualify for the semifinals scheduled on Monday, while the final will be played next Tuesday.

India continued their fine form and struck twice early in the first quarter to take a 2-0 lead. Araijeet Singh Hundal, who scored a brace against Malaysia, scored the first goal in the eighth minute before Harmanpreet, regarded as one of the world’s best dragflickers, converted two penalty corners in the ninth and 43rd minutes.

Korea’s lone goal was scored by Jihun Yang in the 30th minute from a penalty corner.

As has been the case in the tournament so far, the Indians started on an aggressive note with Araijeet handing his side the lead with a brilliant strike after being fed by Sukhjeet Singh. A minute later, the promising Raj Kumar Pal, who struck a hat-trick against Malaysia on Wednesday, earned a penalty corner for India and captain Harmanpreet converted the chance with a powerful dragflick. India’s reserve goalkeeper Suraj Karkera was impressive under the bar, denying Korea on a few occasions in the second quarter. After an impressive first quarter, the Indians seemed to have gone into a shell in the next 15 minutes as Korea dominated the proceedings with continuous forays on the rival citadel. The Indian defence stood tall until Korea pulled a goal just at the stroke of half-time through Yang whose effort went into the net after getting a deflection from Manpreet Singh’s stick from a penalty corner opportunity.