Kuantan: Indian Junior Men’s Hockey Team won the 8th Junior Men’s Asia Cup beating arch-rivals Pakistan by 6-2 in the final at the Wisma Belia Hockey Stadium in Kuantan, Malaysia.

India started the match on a positive note pressing hard since the opening minute of the first half and was soon awarded with a penalty corner. Harmanpreet Singh converted the penalty corner to take his tally to 12 goals in the tournament and give India an early advantage of 1-0. India was again awarded with back to back penalty corners in the 13th and 14thminute. Harmanpreet scored again to take India 2-0 up against Pakistan within 15 minutes of the game. Pakistan fought back in the 28th minute with a successful penalty corner from YAQOOB Muhammad. Soon after in the 30th minute Harmanpreet Singh scored from another penalty corner to complete his hat-trick taking his goal tally to 14 goals in tournament. The first half ended with India leading 3-1.

The second half saw the Indian domination continue with Armaan Qureshi scoring in the 44th minute taking the score to 4-1 in India’s favour. Manpreet jr. scored the 5th goal for India followed by another penalty corner goal by Harmanpreet Singh making the score 6-1. Pakistan scored a consolation goal in the 68th minute through Dilber Muhammad. The match ended with India winning the trophy with a score line of 6-2.

Harendra Singh, Coach, Indian Junior Men’s Hockey Team said, “It was an exciting final and the boys displayed immaculate passion and calmness on the field. We ended up as runners up in the 5th Sultan of Johor Cup which made it an even bigger win as we were hungry for the podium position. The support was immense and we felt we were playing in our own backyard. We only have to look forward from here and keep giving such excellent performances.”

Harmanpreet Singh became the highest scorer with his four goals in the match taking his tournament tally to 15 goals in the tournament.