Skipper Harmanpreet Singh led from the front as he converted two penalty corners to hand unbeaten India a close 2-1 victory over Pakistan in their final league match of the Hero Asian Champions Trophy hockey tournament in Hulunbuir, China, on Saturday.
It was India's fifth consecutive win in the six-team round-robin competition.
Pakistan took the lead through Ahmad Nadeem (8th minute) before Harmanpreet (13th, 19th) converted two penalty corners to lead India to win. It was Pakistan's first loss in this tournament.
Both India and Pakistan have already qualified for the semi-finals. The victory also enabled India to maintain their supremacy over Pakistan since 2016.
In their previous meeting at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year, India thrashed Pakistan 10-2. A few months before that, the Indians beat Pakistan 4-0 during the Chennai edition of the ACT.
At the Asia Cup in Jakarta in 2022, a relatively young Indian side held Pakistan to a 1-1 draw while at the 2021 ACT in Dhaka, India defeated Pakistan 4-3 to clinch the bronze medal.
As like any Indo-Pak hockey match, the first quarter saw end-to-end action with both the teams giving their all to gain the bragging rights.
The Indians started brightly dominating the early share of exchanges but Pakistan grew in confidence as the match progressed.
India were at the receiving end for the first time in the tournament when Pakistan drew the first blood.
It was a selfless Hannan Shahid whose brilliant work from the midfield split the Indian defence and Nadeem found himself at the right place to direct the ball into the Indian goal.
A stunned India kept up their composure and patiently built their attacks and secured their first penalty corner in the 13th minute and skipper Harmanpreet scored with a powerful drag-flick to the left of a hapless Pakistan goalkeeper Munneb.
The Indians continued to press in the second quarter and gained their second penalty corner in the 19th minute and once again Pakistan defence had no answer as Harmanpreet was bang on target as India went up 2-1.
While India were the better side in terms of possession in the second quarter, Pakistan also had their chances, penetrating the rival circle on quite a few occasions.
Just 45 seconds from half-time Pakistan had an opportunity to draw level through a penalty corner but they wasted the chance as Sufyan Khan's flick, which hit the top of the bar, was rejected for a raised ball.
The Indians sustained possession after the change of ends and secured their third penalty corner in the 37th minute, but Pakistan defended bravely.
Thereafter, a sustained spell of attacks helped Pakistanis to bag four penalty corners in quick succession but lacked the firepower to breach the Indian defence.
In the last quarter, both the sides stitched relentless attacks and India secured three more penalty corners but failed to convert.
The match also witnessed a heated encounter between Harmanpreet and Pakistan's Ashraf Waheed Rana after the latter shouldered Jugraj Singh inside the Indian circle.
Jugraj was felled by the impact and was seen grimacing in pain. Harmanpreet and Jarmanpreet Singh were quick to counter the offender.
The on-field umpires and Pakistan captain Butt and other players of both teams rushed in to control the situation but Rana was shown yellow card, which resulted in a 10-minute suspension after the umpire went for a referral for a serious misconduct.
Korea hold Malaysia to a thrilling draw
Meanwhile, in the first match of the day, Malaysia and Korea played out a 3-3 draw.
It was goals by Azrai Abu Kamal (28th minute), Norsyafiq Sumantri (35th) and Faizal Saari (55th) that kept Malaysia in the lead until Yang Jihun scored his second goal in the final minute. He had earlier scored in the 4th minute to give Korea a 1-0 lead while Cheoleon Park (42nd) scored the second goal for Korea.
The match was dominated by Malaysia from the start, as they made ambitious forays into the circle and took as many as 13 shots on goal in the opening quarter. However, it was Korea who reaped from the defencive errors their opponents made as they earned a PC early in the game. In-form Jihun Yang made no mistake in pumping the ball into the net.
In the following quarter, Malaysia was able to make amends to a poor conversion rate as they scored from only three chances they created in the circle. It was Kamal Abu who scored a fine field goal and equalised. They took a 2-1 lead in the 35th minute when Sumantri scored another field goal. Korea was able to make it 2-2 in the 42nd minute through Park's field goal.
The match remained tense as it went into the final quarter. With both teams pushing for winning points, Malaysia upped the ante in their attack and won a flurry of PCs and were able to convert in the 55th minute through their ace dragflicker Faizal Saari. But to their bad fortunes, Jihun scored from the penalty corner which Korea won in the final seconds of the match, as they managed to finish the game in a draw.
