Produced By: Hitansh Gaur
India’s junior men hockey team defeated Pakistan by 2-1 to clinch the fourth Junior Asia Cup. By defeating their arch rivals, the Indian team maintained their dominance in the continent.
Angad Bir Singh opened the scoring for India with his goal in the 13th minute, while his teammate Araijeet Singh Hundal scored the second just seven minutes later giving India a two goal lead in the final. Hundal was also the highest goal-scorer for India with eight goals Pakistan’s only goal was scored by Abdul Basharat in the 37th minute.
India’s latest Junior Asia Cup win is their fourth so far as their previous three titles came in 2004, 2008, and 2015. Pakistan has the second highest number of titles in the tournament with wins in 1987, 1992, and 1996, putting their previous triumph 27 years ago.
India and Pakistan were drafted in the same pool for the group stage as well, but the group stage match ended as a 1-1 draw. Both the teams remained undefeated in the group stage.
India defeated Republic of Korea by 9-1 in the semi-final to reach the final stage of the tournament. Araijeet Singh Hundal had scored one goal in the match, while Boby Singh Dhami scored a hat-trick. On the other hand, Pakistan defeated Malaysia by 6-2 to reach the final.
With their win on Thursday, the Indian team has qualified for the FIH Men’s Junior World Cup, which will be held in Malaysia. To celebrate this, the Hockey India Executive Board has announced an award of Rs 2 lakh for each team member and Rs 1 lakh for each member of the support staff.
At senior level also, the India and Pakistan teams are fierce rivals as they share a total of 11 Asia Cup wins between them. Out of this, Pakistan has won eight while India has just three wins so far.
The number game flips when it comes to Olympic Gold medals that both teams hold. India and Pakistan have a combined 11 Olympic Gold medals, out of which eight belong to India while Pakistan has managed to win the gold medal just three times.
The Indian and Pakistan hockey teams have competed against each other 178 times since their first meeting at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics final. Pakistan currently leads the tally with 82 wins, while India has won 64 times. The match between both teams ended as a draw 32 times.