Hangzhou: The Indian hockey team has performed brilliantly and won the gold medal in the Hangzhou Asian Games. In the final match, India defeated defending champion Japan 5-1. For India, captain Harmanpreet Singh scored the maximum two goals. Whereas Manpreet Singh, Abhishek and Amit Rohidas scored one goal each. The only goal for Japan was scored by Seren Tanaka. With this victory, India has secured the ticket for next year’s Paris Olympics.
No goals could be scored by either team in the first quarter. After a long wait, India managed to score a goal in the 25th minute of the game. Manpreet Singh scored this goal for India. India was leading 1-0 at halftime. Then in the third quarter, India scored two goals in a row. Captain Harmanpreet Singh scored on a penalty corner in the 32nd minute. Then four minutes later (36th minute) Amit Rohidas also scored a goal from the penalty corner.
After this, India scored two goals in the fourth quarter also. In the first 48th minute, Abhishek scored a brilliant field goal. However, Seren Tanaka converted the penalty corner into a goal in the 51st minute and made the score 4-1. Then Harmanpreet scored an excellent goal from the penalty corner in the 59th minute and gave India a spectacular 5-1 victory.
The Indian team has won the gold medal for the fourth time in the Asian Games. Earlier he had won gold medals in 1966, 1998 and 2014. Apart from this, the Indian hockey team has also won 9 silver and 3 bronze. In the pool stage, India scored 58 goals and lost only 5. India defeated South Korea 5-3 in the semi-finals, but the team did not look in rhythm. India had defeated Japan 4-2 in the pool stage. Both the teams have faced each other 28 times since 2013, out of which India won 23 matches. Whereas Japan won three matches and two matches were drawn.
