Top-ranked Indian men’s hockey team continued their splendid run in the Asian Games, this time hammering lowly-ranked Singapore 16-1 here on Tuesday.
Indian skipper Harmanpreet Singh led the show with converting penalty corners (24th, 39th, 40th, 42nd all PCs), while Mandeep Singh (12th, 30th, 51st) struck a hattrick. Abhishek (51st, 52nd) and Varun Kumar (two PCs in 55th) struck two each, while Lalit Kumar Upadhyay (16th), Gurjant Singh (22nd), Vivek Sagar Prasad (23rd), Manpreet Singh (37th), Shamsher Singh (38th) completed the rout of Singapore, who are 46 notches below the world No 3 Indians. Having leaked 14 goals, Singapore, who are ranked a lowly 49th, finally managed to score their first goal of the match and the tournament, when Zaki Zulkarnain slammed home in the 53rd minute. From being 1-0 up after Mandeep Singh’s 12th-minute strike, India pumped in five goals in the second quarter to take a commanding 6-0 lead going into the halftime. Firm favourites India had earlier blanked lowly Uzbekistan 16-0 in their tournament opener on Sunday.