GUWAHATI: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma congratulates the Indian Men's Hockey team for a brilliant campaign in the Asian Champions Trophy that will go down as their fifth victory in this exciting tournament, making them even stronger in India's position in sports.
Taking to X, he wrote, "Congratulations to the Indian Men's Hockey Team on clinching their record 5th Asian Champions Trophy!”
He appreciated the Indian team for its game, in particular during the final match with China, which demonstrated its skill and the desire to take the trophy home. "Heart swells with pride to see India truly re-establishing ourselves as the dominant team in world hockey," he further added.
In the meantime, India bagged the Asian Champions Trophy title for the fifth time in the Men's Hockey Team category. They defeated China 1-0 in the final with Jugraj Singh scoring the solitary goal for them.
China played really well as they restricted India from scoring till the fourth quarter. It was then that captain Harmanpreet Singh handed a pass to Jugraj Singh and he promptly scored his first field goal for India.
It was an almost equal battle in the final as both sides struggled to build a rhythm. Vivke of India went into the circle and created the first big opportunity by crossing into Sukhjeet, who took an adventurous shot between his legs, forcing the Chinese goalkeeper, Wang Weihao, to make a quick reflex clearance.
India slowly built up the pressure in the first quarter, trying to find openings, while China relied on half-court press to launch counterattacks whenever India exposed their defence.
India continued to probe the Chinese defense with Rajkumar, Sukhjeet, Nilakanta, and Raheel, who were near to a penalty corner flick by captain Harmanpreet Singh.
China was gifted another penalty corner, where a sharp save by Krishan Pathak blocked the opening attempt of Jiesheng Gao.
The Asian Men's Hockey Champions Trophy was originally back in 2011 and featured India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Japan, South Korea, and China.
India won the first edition under the captaincy of Rajpal Singh by defeating Pakistan in a closely-contested encounter that went into penalty shootouts. In the next year, Pakistan successfully won the title defeating India, and they continued their rivalry. Since then the title was split between India and Pakistan until South Korea won it in 2021 to spoil the sequence.
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