Chennai: Making a grand start to its campaign at the Hero Asian Champions Trophy Chennai, India, struck thrice each in the first two quarters, on the way to hammering China 7-2 to start its campaign on a rousing note, as the home team eyes for the fourth title and a berth in the Olympics.
It rained goals in the first two quarters that was dominated by India, though China put up up a tough fight in the next two scoring two goals, but could not breach the well organised Indian defence and ended up in a whimper.
Earlier, in other matches, Korea, trailing behind defeated Japan 2-1 and Malaysia humbled Pakistan 3-1.
The India-China contest petered out to be an one-sided affair once dragflicker Harmanpreet found the target twice of penalty corners in a space of three minutes in the first quarter, pushing the Chinese on the backfoot.
It was goals galore at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium with Indian skipper Harmanpreet Singh (5', 8'), Varun Kumar (19', 30'), Sukhjeet Singh (15'), Akashdeep Singh (16') finding the targets, while charismatic forward Mandeep Singh (40') achieved a personal milestone scoring his 100th international goal.
Playing in front of a boisterous home crowd, India got off to a roaring start in the first quarter demolishing the Chinese defence.
Having recently etched his name as one of highest goal scorers in FIH Pro League history, Harmanpreet Singh continued his fine form with a perfect flick to score back-to-back goals in the 5th and 8th minute, giving India an early 2-0 lead.
India continued to build on the momentum as the hosts converted its third PC in the 15th minute. Though Harmanpreet's flick was defended, India forward Sukhjeet Singh picked up the rebound to find the gap, by tapping the ball between his two legs from the goal post.
With the crowd backing them, India was quick to score goal no.4 with stylish forward Akashdeep Singh beating the Chinese defenders with his trademark shot to the post.
A minor error, however, by India defender Varun Kumar led to a counter by China who managed to pull off their first goal of the match through E Wenhui in the 18th minute.
Varun, however, salvaged the error by scoring one for India in the following minute through a PC.
China, making a comeback in International hockey through this event were working hard to find their rhythm again, did well to overcome early setback by patiently looking for a chance in the circle.
Jiesheng Gao was on target to beat India's PC defence and fetch his team an important 2nd goal.
India, however, ended the second quarter on a high with Varun scoring India's 6th goal in the 30th minute.
Though China began the third quarter with better defence, restricting India's movement in the 25m mark, they played with confidence, stemming from the two goals they scored in the second quarter.
It took about 10 minutes into the third quarter for India to find another opening in the striking circle. This time, it was seasoned striker Mandeep Singh who picked up a good variation in PC execution to score India's 7th goal, a flick on the run in the 40th minute.
Incidentally, it was also marked Mandeep's milestone 100th international goal that fetched him the player of the match award.
With a comfortable 7-2 lead, India went into the last quarter wanting to end with a bigger margin. Though they created a number of chances including the PC in the dying minutes of the match, the Chinese defence thwarted it as its custodian Caiyu Wang rising to the occasion.
In the post-match presentation, India Captain Harmanpreet Singh was presented with Hero Top Goal Scorer of FIH Hockey Pro League Season-4 with a cheque of 3000 USD by FIH President Dato Tayyab Ikram.
DafaNews Young Player of the Match award was presented to Vivek Sagar Prasad. (UNI)
