India defeat Pakistan in Asia Cup 2017 group stage match
Title favourites India beat arch-rivals Pakistan 3-1 in the last of the round 1 group stage match at 2017 Hero Asia Cup. Chinglensana Kangujam, Ramandeep Singh, and Harmanpreet Singh scored for India, cementing the team's top spot in Group A, with 9 points. India have won all their first round matches and will now advance to Super4 stage alongside second-placed Pakistan.
Asia Cup 2017
Asia Cup is a quadrennial hockey tournament overseen by Asian Hockey Federation. The first Asia Cup took place in 1982 in Karachi, Pakistan. Ever since the event has been held on eight more occasions. The last Asia Cup was held in 2013 and was won by South Korea. 2017 Asia Cup has been scheduled to take place in Bangladesh between 11th to 22nd Oct.
World Cup qualification
Asia Cup acts as the 2018 Hockey World Cup qualifiers with the continental champions booking a direct spot to play.
Participating countries and format
Eight teams taking part in the event are drawn into two groups of four each. Group A- India, Pakistan, Japan, Bangladesh; Group B- Malaysia, South Korea, China, Oman. Each team plays all the other teams in its group in round-robin format and top two teams from each group proceed to Super4s. Super4s is again a round-robin event from where top two advance to final.
India at the event
Having been drawn in Pool A, India have won both their matches so far. India defeated Japan 5-1 and thrashed the hosts Bangladesh 7-0. The last group stage match against Pakistan will determine if we can top the group ahead of Super4 stage. As it stands, India lead the group with 6 points, followed by Pakistan with 4 points.
Indian squad for Asia Cup
India headed into the Asia Cup with a 18-member squad. Goal keepers - Akash Chikte, Suraj Karkera; Defenders - Dipsan Tirkey, Kothajit Khadangbam, Surender kumar, Harmanpreet Singh, Varun Kumar; Midfielders - SK Uthappa, Sardar Singh, Manpreet Singh (C), Chinglensana Singh, Sumit; Forwards - SV Sunil (VC), Akashdeep Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Lalit Kumar, Gurjant Singh, Satbir Singh.
