Asian Games: Indian men's hockey secure solid 4-2 win over defending champions

Indian mens hockey team on Thursday continued their winning run at the 19th Asian Games defeating the defending champions Japan 42 in their third Pool A matchAbhishek 13 48 Mandeep Singh 24 and Amit Rohidas 34 scored the goals for India to help their side get an important victory Genki Mitani 57 and Ryosei Kato 60 scored the goals for JapanIndia began the match with Jarmanpreet Singh making dangerous overlapping runs from the right flank to trouble the opposition Japans defence was tested when Jarmanpreet picked up a long pass inside the striking circle and found Sukhjeet Singh in front of the nets But the tap from Sukhjeet just went wideAlso ReadAndy Murray crashes out of China Open first roundA late penalty corner from Japan was well defended by goalkeeper Krishan Bahadur Pathak A minute later Abhishek 13 picked a deflected pass and quickly turned around to strike the ball into the nets putting India ahead by a goal to end the first quarterTrailing by a goal Japan started searching for the equaliser with attacking moves But Sumit made an important save inside the circle to deflect away the danger Mandeep and Lalit Kumar Upadhyay built pressure on Japans defence with powerful shots on targetMandeep 24 scored a fantastic goal with a diving tap after receiving a sublime pass from Nilakanta Sharma and India doubled their lead India continued to threaten up front but Japans defence managed to hold off India to 20 at halftimeAt the start of the second half Japan started maintaining ball possession and made dangerous raids inside the circle But the rocksolid Indian defence kept their calm and did not allow Japan any momentum in attack India made the most of an early penalty corner in the third quarter as Amit 34 found the nets with a powerful flick and India went 30 up over JapanKosei Kawabe created a chance to get a shot on target but the Indian goalkeeper made another stellar save to maintain threegoal lead by the end of the third quarterA perfect counterattack early on in the final quarter led to Abhishek 48 turning the ball into the nets after combination play with Mandeep inside the circle and India went ahead by 40Japan made a dangerous run inside Indias circle but Sumit made another important save to deny the opposition Japan finally found a goal from a penalty corner late in the fourth quarter as Genki 57 put his name on the scoresheetRyosei 60 scored another goal for Japan at the stroke of the fulltime whistle but it was not enough to change the result as India secured a 42 winIndia will next face off against archrivals Pakistan on SaturdayThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever