India beat arch-rivals Pakistan 10-2 to register a record-breaking win in the Pool A fixture of the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou on Saturday.
Skipper Harmanpreet Singh led the onslaught with four goals to his name, while a brace from Varun Kumar and goals from Mandeep Singh, Shamsher Singh, Sumit and Lalit Upadhyay helped the men in blue assert their dominance in a one-sided game.
Saturday's win is the first time India has managed to score 10 past their arch-rivals, making it the largest-ever margin of victory against Pakistan.
Harmanpreet scored in the 11th, 17th, 33rd and 34th minutes while Varun Kumar (41st and 54th) struck twice. Mandeep Singh (8th), Sumit (30th), Samsher Singh (46th) and Lalit Kumar Upadhyay (49th) were the other goal-getters.
Pakistan reduced the margin through Sufyan Muhammad Khan (38th) and Abdul Rana (45th) as India toyed with their opponents for a large part of their penultimate pool match.
India's earlier biggest victory margin was 7-1 against Pakistan registered in 2017.
Pakistan's 7-1 win in the final of the 1982 Asian Games in New Delhi was their biggest win against India. India, thus, exacted revenge for that humiliating loss 41 years ago through Saturday's match.
India have now sealed the top spot in Pool A with 12 points from four consecutive wins against Japan, Uzbekistan and Singapore. India will play Bangladesh on October 2 in their last Pool A match.
India's goal rush continues
India took the lead when Abhishek made a fine turn on the left side into the opponent's striking circle and his pass was deflected into goal in the eighth minute by Mandeep.
Pakistan made some threatening moves and earned their first penalty corner in the 11th minute but India goalkeeper Krishan Bahadur Pathak was up to the task.
India doubled their lead in the 11th minute when they were awarded a penalty stroke and Harmanpreet made no mistake. Harmanpreet scored his second goal and sixth of the tournament in the 17th minute by converting India's first penalty corner of the match with an accurate drag-flick.
Pakistan attacked mostly from the left side but failed to get a clear shot at the Indian goal. Pakistan earned their second penalty corner in the 28th minute but failed to get past veteran Indian goalkeeper PR Sreejesh.
Just seconds before half-time, Sumit struck with a fierce reverse hit. The Pakistanis went for a review but lost and trailed 0-4 at the halfway mark.
India made it 5-0 three minutes after the change of ends with Harmanpret converting another penalty stroke after the ball hit a Pakistani player's foot.
Initially, the referee gave a penalty corner but India successfully reviewed for a penalty stroke. It turned into a rout for Pakistan as India earned three back-to-back penalty corners and Harmanpreet struck his fourth goal of the day with a fine drag flick.
Varun, Shamsher and Lalit joined the party with field goals in the 41st, 46th and 49th minutes. Varun found the net for the second time in the day when he converted a penalty corner six minutes from the final hooter.
The 'Men in Blue' have scored a whopping 46 goals and conceded 5 goals across these fixtures with a 16-0 win over Uzbekistan, a 16-1 win over Singapore, a 4-2 victory over Japan and today's 10-2 drubbing of Pakistan in the 19th edition of Asian Games.
(With additional inputs from PTI)