SALALAH: Arch-rivals India edged Pakistan by the scoreline of 2-1 to lift the Junior Hockey Asia Cup 2023 title, which is their fourth overall.
Singh Angad Bir opened the scoring for India in the 12th minute via a brilliant field goal and gave his side an upper hand in the first quarter.
Hundal Araijeet Singh then doubled India’s lead just four minutes into the second quarter as Pakistan spilt a couple of opportunities to fire an equalizer.
The third quarter turned out to be a fortune changer for the green shirts as they finally registered a goal on the scoreboard, courtesy of a calculated field goal by Ali Basharat in the 37th minute.
Basharat’s goal forced India to be more defensive and they cordoned off their post to deny Pakistan any chance to fire the equalizer.
Pakistan made several attempts to breach India’s defences by dribbling past their defenders and awarded penalty corners but failed to fire the ball into the nets and thus India ran away with the victory.
Heading into the blockbuster final, both India and Pakistan were unbeaten in the continental event.
The arch-rivals have so far come face to face in four Junior Hockey Asia Cup finals with India winning on three occasions – 2004, 08 and 23 – while the green shirts emerged victorious once in 1996.
Furthermore, before this year’s tournament both Pakistan were level as the joint-most title-winning sides (3) but India’s latest title victory propelled them to the record title holder of the Asian event.
Notably, the arch-rivals also came face to face in the group stage but the enthralling contest failed to conclude a result as they settled for a 1-1 stalemate.
Playing at the Salalah Sports Complex, the Pakistan team defended the Indian attack quite brilliantly in the first quarter which ended without a goal despite men in blue enjoying the bulk of possession.
India took the lead via a penalty corner with Sharad Nand Tiwari flicking the ball in the net to help his team go 1-0 before halftime.
Pakistan, however, unleashed a counterattack in the third quarter and put the Indian defence under pressure.
India won a couple of penalty corners but failed to score. Pakistan, on the other hand, equalized through Ali Basharat, who netted from a close distance to make it 1-1.
The final quarter also witnessed a see-saw contest with both teams battling for a winning goal but the deadlock persisted till the final whistle.
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