{"id":185198,"date":"2023-09-28T17:26:08","date_gmt":"2023-09-28T17:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indiansapidnews.com\/?p=185198"},"modified":"2023-09-28T17:26:08","modified_gmt":"2023-09-28T17:26:08","slug":"asian-games-hockey-india-pick-up-4-2-win-over-defending-champions-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indiansapidnews.com\/sport\/asian-games-hockey-india-pick-up-4-2-win-over-defending-champions-japan\/","title":{"rendered":"Asian Games Hockey: India pick up 4-2 win over defending champions Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Indian men’s hockey team on Thursday continued their winning run at the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou 2022, defeating the 2018 Asian Games Gold medallist Japan 4-2 in their third Pool A match.<\/p>\n

Abhishek (13′, 48′), Mandeep Singh (24′), and Amit Rohidas (34′) scored the goals for India to help their side get an important victory.<\/p>\n

Genki Mitani (57′), and Ryosei Kato (60′) scored the goals for Japan.
India began the match with Jarmanpreet Singh making dangerous overlapping runs from the right flank to trouble the opposition.<\/p>\n

Japan’s defence was tested when Jarmanpreet picked up a long pass inside the striking circle and found Sukhjeet Singh in front of the nets. But the tap from Sukhjeet just went wide. A late penalty corner from Japan was well defended by India goalkeeper Krishan Bahadur Pathak.<\/p>\n

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A minute later, Abhishek (13′) picked a deflected pass, and quickly turned around to strike the ball into the nets, putting India ahead by a goal to end the first quarter.<\/p>\n

Trailing by a goal, Japan started searching for the equaliser with attacking moves. But Sumit made an important save inside the circle to deflect away the danger. Mandeep Singh and Lalit Kumar Upadhyay built pressure on Japan’s defence with powerful shots on target. Mandeep Singh (24′) scored a fantastic goal with a diving tap after receiving a sublime pass from Nilakanta Sharma, and India doubled their lead.<\/p>\n

India continued to threaten up front, but Japan’s defence managed to hold off India to 2-0 at halftime.<\/p>\n

At the start of the second half, Japan started maintaining ball possession and made dangerous raids inside the circle. But the rock-solid Indian defence kept their calm and did not allow Japan any momentum in attack.<\/p>\n

India made the most of an early penalty corner in the third quarter as Amit Rohidas (34′) found the nets with a powerful flick and India went 3-0 up over Japan. Kosei Kawabe created a chance to get a shot on target, but the Indian goalkeeper Krishan Bahadur Pathak made another stellar save to maintain India’s three-goal lead by the end of the third quarter.<\/p>\n

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A perfect counter-attack early on in the final quarter led to Abhishek (48′) turning the ball into the nets, after combination play with Mandeep Singh inside the circle, and India went ahead by 4-0.<\/p>\n