Jakarta: Defending champion India chalked out their biggest ever win after 86 years as they clobbered helpless Hong Kong 26-0 in the Men’s hockey competition at the 18th Asian Games here on Wednesday.
India who thrashed Indonesia 17-0 in the opener for their biggest win in Asian Games, this afternoon rewrote the record books as they erased the previous best of 24-1 which the country had achieved against the US in 1932 Olympic.
In two matches India has so far scored 43 goals without conceding any. In the previous edition of the Games at Inchon, India had a tally of 20 goals in the whole tournament.
It was yet another no contest in which the winners led 14-0 at the half time, For them the the goal scorers were, Lalit Upadhyay, Rupinder Pal, Harmanpreet (4 each) Akashdeep (3), Manpreet, Mandeep Singh (two each) SV Sunil, Vivek Prasad, Amit Rohidas, Varun Kumar, Dilpreet Singh, Chinglensana Singh, Simranjeet Singh (one each).
Earlier in Pool A match, strong contender Korea trounced Sri Lanka 8-0, after leading 4-0 at half time. This was Korea’s second win in as many matches. They had beaten Hong Kong 11-0 in their opener.
In Pool B Bangladesh outplayed Kazakhstan 6-1 (HT 4-0) for second successive victory, having beaten Oman 2-1 in the first outing.
India who had thrashed host Indonesia 17-0 in their opening match, showed no mercy to Hong Kong and were 5-0 up in first seven minutes of the game.
They scored six goals in first quarter and eight in the second to make it 14 goals in 30 minutes.
There was no resistance to the Indian from their rivals and they scored as they willed.
The goal gate was opened in the first minute with Akashdeep slamming the ball home to make (1-0). And in next 13 minutes Rupinder Pal converted two penalty corners, Manpreet Singh, S V Sunil and Vivek chipped in a goal each to put the issue beyond unskilled Hong King side.
Second quarter witness eight more goals from India as the rivals just caved in. Hong Kong players neither had the skill nor the stamina to match their formidable rivals.
They did not even played tough or tried to get physical with the Indians. On the other hand they looked like providing easy passage to the Indians to score.
The losers went through the motion and longingly waited for the final whistle. There was no intensity or zeal in them and they hardly tried to make counter moves.
As Indians pumped kin three more goals in a space of seven minutes in the second half to reach 17-0 mark they slowed down a bit and for next seven minutes peace prevailed but just at the end of the third quarter, Indians fired again this time through Rupinder pal who converted a penalty corner to make it 18-0.
Three minutes into the last quarter the marauding Indians were up 19-0 with Dilpreet Singh scoring his first goal in this match and the 20th goal came in the 51st minute through K Chinglensana Singh.
Last six minutes saw six more goals being added to their kitty as Hong Kong players heaved a sigh relief when the final whistle was blown to signal the end of the no contest.
The last few minutes provided a comic relief to the spectators as Hong Kong earned a penalty corner which even surprised them and India played without a goal keeper with Rupinder Pal in the goal without pads.
Rupinder had the last laugh, he latched on to the ball in the right flank moved up to score the last goal of the match. (UNI)
