India regains top spot in Asian Champions Trophy

On Monday, India secured the top position in the Asian Cup once again by defeating South Korea with a score of 3-2 in the final match. Before the match, they had already guaranteed themselves a spot in the semifinals on Friday. Nilakanta Sharma initiated the scoring from a short distance after Sukhjeet Singh’s impressive efforts.

Six minutes later, however, the visitors struck back through Sunghyun Kim. The defending Asian champions were proving to be tenacious opponents, but India remained patient. They quickly regained their lead, with captain Harmanpreet Singh sounding the board from the top of the D. Harmanpreet, on the other hand, missed a stroke after Mandeep Singh maintained his recent form with a field goal. With the win, they will advance to the semifinals as one of the top two teams in the league phase.

However, it was not as impressive as their performance against Malaysia. They were a little sloppy in defence (Korea earned 11 penalty corners, 7 more than India) and let the visitors have multiple shots on goal. In fact, for the majority of the large quarter, Korea camped in Indian territory, with the hosts content to simply repel the attacks in order to hold on to the victory.

They almost paid the price when Korea cut the deficit in half with less than three minutes remaining thanks to Jihun Yang. On Wednesday, India will play its final league match against Pakistan. Earlier in the day, Pakistan defeated China 2-1, while Malaysia rebounded from a loss to the hosts to defeat Japan 3-1.