Asian Games 2026: Dilpreet shines as Indian males’s hockey workforce thrashes Indonesia 13-1

Aichi-Nagoya [Japan], September 20 (ANI): Dilpreet Singh was the primary man with 4 sensational objectives because the Indian males’s hockey workforce began off their marketing campaign on the ongoing Asian Games with a thumping  win over Indonesia of their males’s Pool A conflict on Sunday. 

Team India was put in entrance proper in the beginning with a objective from Shilanand Lakra within the fifth minute.

Soon, Dilpreet Singh made it two extra objectives, first organising Abhishek with a cut-back and the latter smashing the ball into an empty web (twelfth minute), with the primary quarter ending with a 2-0 scoreline. Later, Dilpreet bought his personal, with Sumit and Abhishek paving the best way for his objective (18th minute). 

The objective fest continued as Dilpreet scored one more tap-in into an empty web a minute after his first. Ranjit drilled the ball from left, and it discovered Dilpreet who was on the far-post, as per ESPN.

After aiding Dilpreet, Rajinder discovered the online within the twenty first minute, passing the ball to Dilpreet first, who failed to attain, however Rajinder efficiently tapped in a rebound dwelling within the nineteenth minute. 

Mandeep Singh made it fifth within the twenty first minute. Hardik Singh handed the ball to Sukhjeet to his left, who squared it to Mandeep, who was proper in entrance of the goalie and deflected it into objective. 

Harmanpreet Singh was lastly among the many objectives within the twenty eighth minute, changing a penalty nook right into a objective. The seven-minute wait was the longest India needed to wait. India ended the primary half at 7-0. 

Indonesia secured their first objective within the second half, with Al Ardh Aulia discovering the online within the thirty third minute. But India responded again with three extra objectives throughout the subsequent 5 minutes, with Shailanand getting the objective within the thirty fifth minute and Dilpreet getting his hat-trick within the thirty seventh minute courtesy a superb move from Jarmanpreet Singh, hanging a close-range objective.

Sukhjeet Singh additionally joined the goal-scoring occasion within the thirty eighth minute, with a rebound objective after Dilpreet did not get his fourth. India was up 10-0. 

A penalty nook conversion from Sukhjeet (forty sixth minute) and objectives from Sukhjeet (forty eighth minute) and Dilpreet (forty ninth minute) continued the onslaught on Indonesia. 

Their subsequent match will likely be in opposition to Sri Lanka on Tuesday.

The Indian males’s hockey workforce have an opportunity of constructing historical past. The eight-time Olympic gold medalists have gained 4 Asian Games gold medals. In the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games males’s event last, India had thrashed Japan 5-1 to safe the gold below the captaincy of Harmanpreet Singh. If India manages to safe a gold medal on the Asian Games, they may have a crimson carpet laid out for them for the Los Angeles Olympics 2028, as they may earn a direct spot within the all-important multi-sport extravaganza. 

India has been a dominant facet on the Asian Games traditionally, having by no means misplaced the rostrum apart from the 2006 version in Doha, when the boys’s workforce completed fifth. Other than that, they’ve gained 9 silver medals and three bronze medals.

A gold-medal-winning marketing campaign in Japan will likely be an enormous confidence booster for Harmanpreet and Craig Fulton’s facet, which had an underwhelming FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup lately, ending in eighth place.

Indian males’s hockey workforce: Harmanpreet Singh (captain), Mohith HS, Suraj Karkera, Jarmanpreet Singh, Amit Rohidas, Jugraj Singh, Sanjay, Sumit, Yashdeep Siwach, Rajinder Singh, Raj Kumar Pal, Hardik Singh, Manpreet Singh, Nilakanta Sharma, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Dilpreet Singh, Shilanand Lakra, Sukhjeet Singh, Mandeep Singh, Abhishek. (ANI)