Muscat: India were declared as the joint winners of the Vth Men’s Asian Champions Trophy hockey tournament after their final against Pakistan was abandoned due to bad weather conditions here Sunday.
India were looking to defend their title which they won back in Kuantan, Malaysia in 2016 when they beat arch-rivals Pakistan 3-2 in the Final. However, the weather conditions played spoilsport as heavy rainfall made it difficult for both the teams to start the game here at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex.
Fifth ranked India had earlier secured their passage through to the final of the tournament after remaining undefeated in the competition with five wins and a draw in their six matches – 11-0 against hosts Oman, 3-1 against Pakistan, 9-0 against Japan, 0-0 against Malaysia and 4-1 against South Korea in the round robin stages; whereas beating Japan again with a margin of 3-2 in the semifinals.
The Indian team were also the highest scoring team in the competition as they scored a total of 30 goals which consisted of 11 different goal-scorers. Harmanpreet Singh tops the India chart with six goals, while forwards Mandeep Singh and Dilpreet Singh scored five each. Akashdeep Singh was adjudged the player of the tournament while PR Sreejesh won the goalkeeper of the competition.
Earlier on the day it was Malaysia who finished at the third place as they defeated Japan 3-2 in penalty shootout after the scores remained 2-2 at the end of regulation time in the bronze medal match of the competition.
