ASIAN CHAMPIONS TROPHY: Pakistan face India today

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and India will be up against each other in the Asian Champions Trophy Hockey match in Oman today (Saturday) with onus clearly against Greenshirts following their last three years’ poor performance.

Indian team chief coach Harendra Singh says his team has shrugged off the disappointment of the Asian Games and is shaping well ahead of their special match.

Title holders India started the tournament with a runaway 11-0 victory over hosts Oman on Thursday. “The competitive part of the tournament starts Saturday with the match against Pakistan,” said Harendra, who admitted the dejection within the squad when they failed to defend the Asian Games title in Jakarta.

Young striker Dilpreet Singh led the Indian strikers with three goals against Oman. After being denied in the first quarter by the hosts, India opened the scoring through Lalit Upadhyay’s goal in open play in the 17th minute.

Three more goals followed in the second quarter as Harmanpreet Singh (22nd minute) sounded the board with a low drag-flick, followed by Nilakanta Sharma (23rd minute) flicking in during a goalmouth scrimmage and Mandeep Singh (30th minute) capitalising on a pass from the right flank.

Having started with two forays into the Indian circle in the first quarter, Oman wilted under pressure in the second half. Dilpreet scored three goals (41st, 55th and 57th minutes) and was adjudged Man of the Match, while Gurjant Singh (37th minute), Akashdeep Singh (48th minute), Varun Kumar (49th minute) and Chinglensana Singh (53rd minute) made entries on the score-sheet.

Meanwhile, Pakistan skipper Rizwan Senior said, “Our first priority is to make a winning start. They have made about eight changes in their team and since we don’t know too much about what these new players bring to the team, we have to be quite cautious against them.

“But yes, Pakistan-India matches are always good for the audience and this will be the first time the two teams will be playing in Muscat so naturally the excitement is high among hockey lovers here. Hopefully, we will live up to the expectations and ensure it will be a thrilling match.”

In the other fixture of the opening day, Malaysia posted a 3-0 victory over Japan to avenge their loss in the final of the Asian Games.

Riding on two early penalty corner conversions, Malaysia posted a sound victory over Japan at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex.

Faisal Saari sent a drag flick into the net to open the scoring in the third minute and Tengku Tajuddin capitalised on a rebound from the goalkeeper on Malaysia’s second penalty corner in the ninth minute to put Malaysia on course to avenging their loss in the final of the recent Asian Games in Jakarta.