Hulunbuir. On the strength of a hat-trick by young striker Rajkumar Pal, defending champion India defeated Malaysia 8-1 and entered the semi-finals of the Hero Asian Champions Trophy here on Wednesday with its third consecutive win. Apart from Rajkumar (3rd, 25th and 33rd minutes), Arijit Singh Hundal (6th and 39th minutes), Jugraj Singh (7th minute), captain Harmanpreet Singh (22nd minute) and Uttam Singh (40th minute) scored goals. Akhimullah Anwar (34th minute) scored the only goal for Malaysia. India is on top with nine points after winning three matches.
The six-team tournament is being played on a round-robin basis in which the top four teams will advance to the semi-finals on September 16. The final will be played on September 17. India had earlier defeated hosts China 3-0 and Japan 5-1. The Paris Olympics bronze medallist Indian team will face Korea on Thursday and Pakistan on Saturday. In the 2023 Asian Champions Trophy between India and Malaysia, the Indian team was trailing 1-3 till halftime, after which it made a comeback and won the title by winning 4-3.
Indian strikers continued their excellent form and scored five field goals while Jugraj, Harmanpreet and Uttam converted penalty corners. India started aggressively and launched continuous attacks in the first quarter itself. Rajkumar displayed a brilliant play in the third minute and put the ball inside the goal single-handedly. Three minutes later Arijeet doubled India’s lead. A minute later Jugraj converted a penalty corner to give India a 3-0 lead in the first quarter itself. In the second quarter Malaysia started aggressively and also scored a penalty corner but could not score a goal.
India got two penalty corners in the 22nd minute, one of which was scored by Harmanpreet. A few minutes later, Rajkumar scored his second goal on a brilliant move by Arijit and Uttam. In the third minute of the second half, Rajkumar scored his third goal on Vivek Sagar Prasad’s pass, completing his first hat-trick at the senior level. Meanwhile, Anwar scored a goal for Malaysia. For India, Arijit scored on Neelakanta’s pass while Uttam scored a goal through rebound on a penalty corner. Earlier, in another match, Pakistan defeated Japan 2-1.