Hockey Junior Asia Cup 2023: India defeats Pakistan to win the title
The Indian men’s hockey team defeated arch-rivals Pakistan in yet another final in a thrilling encounter. The junior team has won the Junior Asia Cup title for the fourth time by defeating Pakistan 2-1. A large number of fans from India and Pakistan had gathered to see this tournament happening after 8 years. In the last moments, Pakistan showed aggressive hockey, but the defense led by Indian goalkeeper HS Mohit failed their every attack. Angad Bir Singh scored for India in the 12th minute, Arijit Singh Hundal scored in the 19th minute, while Basharat Ali scored the lone goal for the Pakistan team, coached by former India head coach Roelant Oltmans, in the 37th minute. India has won this title for the fourth time after 2004, 2005 and 2015 while Pakistan has been the champion in 1987, 1992 and 1996.
Both the teams have met in the finals of the Junior Men’s Hockey Asia Cup thrice earlier. Pakistan won in 1996 while India was victorious in 2004. India won the title by defeating Pakistan 6-2 in the last tournament played in Malaysia. This time the tournament was played after 8 years. It was not organized in 2021 due to the Corona pandemic. India started aggressively and attacked the opposition in the first quarter itself. Angad Bir got the first success for India in the 12th minute.
In the second quarter too, India dominated in terms of ball control. Finishing off a brilliant move by the Indian forward line, Arijit scored his second field goal in the 19th minute. This was his 8th goal in the tournament. Before the half-time, Pakistan’s Shahid Abdul created an opportunity, but his shot in front of the goal was saved by Indian goalkeeper Mohit with full promptness. In the second half, the Pakistani team made an aggressive comeback and it paid off in the 7th minute of the third quarter when Shahid Abdul passed the ball to Basharat, who was standing on the right of the goal, from inside the circle to dodge the Indian defenders to score for his team.
